The Labyrinth of The Faun
by decco6226
Summary: In 2015 Eagleland, young Ninten and his ailing mother arrive at the post of his mother's new husband, a sadistic army officer who is trying to quell a guerrilla uprising. While exploring an ancient maze, Ninten encounters a faun, who tells him that he is a legendarily lost prince and must complete three dangerous tasks in order to claim immortality.
1. Chapter 1

Darkness.

A female voice hums a sweet lullaby.

 **Eagleland, 2015**

 **THE CIVIL WAR IS OVER.**

 **HIDDEN IN THE MOUNTAINS, ARMED MEN STILL FIGHT THE NEW FASCIST REGIME. MILITARY POSTS ARE ESTABLISHED TO EXTERMINATE THE RESISTANCE.**

 _The raw, raspy sound of an older male child struggling to breathe._

 _Drops of blood drip up the cliff wall, shown sideways. Ninten, thirteen years old is lying on the ground, clearly in agony. A thick ribbon of blood is flowing backwards into his nostrils, and the view goes skywards. As it does, his dilated pupils shrink. The small stream of blood from his mouth drips backwards into his lips, as well as the single tear that disappears into his eye._

 _ **A long long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Prince who dreamed of the human world. He dreamed of blue skies, the soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding his keepers, the Prince escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded him and erased every trace of the past from his memory. He forgot who He was and where He came from. His body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, he died. However, his father, the King, always knew that the Prince's soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for him, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning...**_

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~oO0Oo~

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Two cars and a large truck containing luggage drive through the forest.

Seated up in the back seat of the front car is Ninten. He's rather thin and doesn't have a strong build for a boy of thirteen, but he can make up for it with enthusiasm and his sometimes clever remarks.

He's dressed in his favourite shirt – a red, blue, and white striped one, and has a red and blue baseball cap that he never takes off his pile of straight, charcoal hair. He also had a simple, red bandana tied around his neck, which he also never unties.

The boy flips through a book of fairy tales which is seated on his lap. Although he does like doing things which is normal for every boy – for instance, baseball – he also has a fascination with old fairy tales. He reads the last sentence of one page and flips to the next. At his side is a small pile of more fairy tales, tied together with a leather belt. He may get teased occasionally for such interests, but he doesn't care about those few people.

The car rocks back and forth.

"I don't understand why you had to bring so many books, Ninten."

Ninten turns to the direction of his thirty-year-old mother, Carol, studying him, her enormous stomach evidence of advanced pregnancy. She too has black hair.

"We're going to the country, the outdoors."

She takes the book away from Ninten and looks at it. Half of that look shows signs of nostalgia from her past of reading such books. The other half of the look is told with a simple,

"Fairy tales..." She cradles her son's chin in her hand. "You're a bit too old to be filling your head with such nonsense."

She pauses, feeling nausea coming her way. She presses her blue handkerchief to her mouth, and gasps out, "Ask him to stop the car, please."

Ninten wastes no time and knocks quickly on the partition window of the sedan.

The caravan of cars comes to a screeching halt in the forest. It's color a mixture of greens, and gold from the sunlight above reflecting on its nature.

Carol exits immediately, one hand on her mouth, the other clutching her pregnant stomach. She leans against the automobile. Gasping for air, she battles nausea. While doing so, she looks up to see Ninten has exited the car as well, timidly approaching her.

"Ninten, wait. Your brother is acting up."

Ninten nods very quickly and takes that opportunity to explore a little bit of the forest. Not too far...

One of the military men, dressed in blue and wearing black, high leather boots around his feet walks up to the boy's mother. As Ninten moves casually on the road, he can hear the distant conversation among the crows' caws.

"Madam, are you alright?"

"Water – just a bit of water..."

"Water!" The man yells. "Water for the captain's wife."

 _Clink!_

Ninten looks down at his shoe and bends down, picking up the small stone he's just stumbled upon. It's about the size of his fist, and carved into the rock is the outline of a human eye.

His eyes gleam, fascinated.

Deciding to keep the stone with him, he walks a little further, looking among the shrubs. A small, stone pillar sticks up amongst the grass and bushes. Deciding to investigate, Ninten walks over to its direction. His find makes him jump back a bit.

It's a statue of a satyr, it's mouth wide open and etchings of Celtic letterings carved in its body everywhere. A piece of its brutish face is missing – an eye. Ninten holds up his eye-etched rock.

 _It looks like it would fit... Do I really wanna?_

Without thinking, he finds himself placing the stone in its rightful place – a perfect fit.

A strange gurgling and clicking noise emerges from the mouth – seeming to be from within its core. Ninten prepares himself for defence. The wind picks up, and before the boy can even react, a large stick insect has jumped from its stone home.

Ninten jumps, clearly startled, but then calms down and stares, intrigued by the insect as it crawls around the statue's face.

 _Ninten?_

He smiles, and the insect jumps up and flies. He watches it zoom away.

"Ninten?"

He turns around to see his mother with a soldier aside her. She has summoned him.

"Come here." She motions the direction toward her with her hand. He runs to his mother's side, enthusiastically saying, "I saw a fairy-"

"Just look at your shoes!" She exclaims. He looks down to see his brown shoes covered in mud.

She puts an arm around him and leads him back to the car.

"Let's go. When we get to the mill, come out to greet the Captain. I want you to call him Father."

Ninten's head fills with panic. _Why the hell should I?_

It seems as though – like most – his mother had heard his thoughts.

"You have no idea how good he's been to us. It's just a word, Ninten... Just a word..."

They both climb back into their seats in the car, and the vehicles zoom off as they did before, leaving Ninten watching outside as the stick insect flies around.

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~oO0Oo~

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Giygas looks at his silver pocket watch in his black gloved hand. Its glass is cracked, and it ticks repeatedly.

The sound of a car horn flows through the atmosphere.

"Captain, here they come!" A soldier yells in his direction.

"Fifteen minutes late..." He mutters to himself.

The three vehicles move into the mill compound. The site consists of a pair of dark stone buildings with corrugated roofs, connected to the mill by a small stone bridge. A large water wheel hangs over the dry riverbed. The wooden beams and columns bear sculpted Celtic motifs and here and there, small, odd, carved creatures. The walls have been reinforced with hundreds of sandbags and wooden pontoons as if preparing for an attack.

Captain Giygas and a small group of servants and soldiers wait patiently outside. When the cars get closer and stop, they move towards them. As some start to bring out luggage, the front car's door opens and Carol and Giygas stare at each other.

"Carol." He greets pleasantly with a smile as she steps out. He touches her pregnancy with his palm and holds hers in the other.

"Welcome."

He moves aside, revealing a metal, manual wheelchair. Carol already knows where this is going.

"That's not necessary. I can walk perfectly well."

"Our doctor, Jeff, prefers that you don't exert yourself." The doctor, Jeff, stands behind the wheelchair. A thinner man of nineteen, with blonde hair and glasses, but he gets the job done well - the best on their team!

"No." She says sternly.

"Come on..." He says. He leans in next to her ear. "Do it for me." He whispers ever so softly.

She obeys, and falls into the seat of the wheelchair, quietly thanking Jeff.

Carol then looks back into the car.

"Ninten, come out. Say hello to the Captain."

Ninten clutches his books close to his chest and slowly moves out of the car. When he steps out onto the grass, Giygas says "Ninten." His smile is fake – like the boy's a waste of space. His voice shallow and deep, no interest in the thirteen-year-old. The boy looks so small and is pretty scared as he looks at the towering man.

 _I guess I should start... huh?_

He raises his hand slowly, offering a handshake, the other clutching his books. The Captain looks at it offended. It is his left hand. Before the boy can correct the mistake, the man grabs his hand by the tops of his fingers, and squeezes, hurting the poor boy. He winces in pain.

"It's the other hand, Ninten."

Cold.

And his mother says nothing.

Giygas throws the boy's hand away like it's garbage, and turns.

"Paula!"

The fifteen-year-old blonde in charge of all these servants – strangely – turns around.

"Bring their luggage."

"Yes, sir!" She replies. Her eyes seem infinitely sad, and tired.

And then the boy is left alone, as his mother is taken into the mill. He clutches the books to his chest and tries to hold back the tears. He feels lower than the depths of Hell...

But then he looks up... And Paula watches him. He's staring at that stick insect, sitting atop a pile of old sandbags.

 _Had it followed him?_

He doesn't waste a second. He walks quickly towards it, dropping his books carelessly to the grass. His pace quickens and he dashes to it and grabs for it. It zooms from his fist.

It rushes away to the right of the mill, to the edge of a small rise. The boy goes after it, so quickly his hat flies off his head, but he doesn't notice.

He keeps running.

But his pace slows, as the stick insect has gone into something too amazing for the boy to take in all at once. Among the trees is the ruin of an old stone labyrinth. It's circular, it's paths overgrown and partially blocked. Some roots and vines growing against its rock.

 _Should I? No... But I will eventually... It's too awesome._

Ninten slowly makes his way down the first corridor and looks beyond what's in store for him.

"It's a labyrinth." He hears.

He whips around to the young, female voice, to find Paula standing at the entrance. She's dressed in a pink pinafore. He walks towards her, smiling sheepishly. She has his books in her arms.

"Just a pile of old rocks that have always been here. Even before the mill. Better not go in there – you might get lost."

She hands him his dropped items, which he thankfully takes.

"Thank you!"

"Have you read them all?" She asks.

"Paula!" A male voice calls.

Paula turns around and Ninten looks beyond her shoulder. One of Giygas' solders.

"The Captain is calling."

She nods and turns.

"Your father needs me." She heads for the mill, Ninten running after her, desperately trying to get someone to listen to what he wants to say. To think about _his_ feelings.

"He's not my father."

Paula turns her head, still walking. Ninten speeds up and catches up with her side.

"The Captain is not my father! My father was a tailor. He died in the war. The Captain is _not_ my father."

"Well, you've made that clear enough? Shall we go?"

The two walk away together.

"Have you seen my mother?"

"Yes."

"Isn't she beautiful?"

"Yes."

"She's sick with baby. Did you notice?"

As the two walk towards the mill, the stick insect perches itself on the top of the maze's entrance, watching the two children get smaller and eventually disappear into the mill.


	2. Chapter 2

"The guerrillas are sticking to the woods because it's hard to track them up there," Giygas says, studying a map with a magnifying glass. The night sky blazes in the contrast with the crackling fire in the corner.

He stands up and speaks to his right-hand man, Everdred, and other men. "Those bastards know the terrain better than any of us. We'll block all access to the woods. Food, medicine – we'll store it all. Right here."

Paula steps in the room and brings a tray of food in. She places the plates of bread, olives, cold cuts, and a bottle of liquor on the table they're at. "We'll force them down, make them come to us. We'll set up three new command posts."

Giygas places three markers on the map. "Here, here, and here."

Paula glances at the map, concealing avid interest.

"Paula," Giygas says, suddenly placing an arm on her shoulder. She stares at him. "Ask Jeff to come down."

"Yes, sir."

She walks out.

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~oO0Oo~

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Jeff takes out a thin, tall bottle with a pasteur pipette in it. Carol lies in bed sleepily while Ninten stands, watching the young doctor's actions with interest.

"This will help you sleep through the night," Jeff explains. "Just two drops before bed." He uses the dropper and dumps two drops of the liquid into a glass of water. As he places the dropper down and hands the glass of water to Carol, Ninten places the dropper back in it's place, and picks of the bottle, staring at it.

"Very good," Jeff says, watching Ninten's mother drinking the liquid weakly. "All of it. Good."

Carol groans after she finishes the water.

Jeff goes back to his doctor's kit, closes it up, and finishes, saying "Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything. Day or night."

He stops and looks at Ninten, who is smiling, standing beside his mother's bed.

"You or your little doctor." He concludes.

Ninten smiles, and Jeff leaves. "Goodnight."

"Close the door, and turn off the lights, sweetie," Carol says, yawning, and passing the medicine vial to her son.

Ninten places the vial on the bedside table.

Outside the closed door, Paula and Jeff talk quietly amongst themselves after they check to make sure the foyer is empty.

"You have to help us. Come up and see him. The wound is getting worse. His leg isn't getting any better." Paula whispers quickly.

Jeff hands her a small package wrapped in dark paper and neatly tied with string. "This is all I could get. I'm sorry."

Paula sighs, disappointed.

"Captain Giygas is waiting for you in his office." She says.

The doctor moves downstairs, and Paula glances back to the upper bedroom. Ninten has been peeking out from the partially open door, listening attentively.

 _How long as he been there?!_

The boy closes the door quietly.

In the dark room lit only by a fireplace, the voice of his mother calls out.

"Come here, Ninten."

He obeys and walks over to the bed. He takes off his hat and shoes and places them on the floor. Never to take off the bandana around his neck, though. That was a forbidden act to him. He climbs into his mother's bed and snuggles close.

Although sometimes he felt that he might be immature for his thirteen-year-old age, he felt no remorse being babied by his mother and felt no shame cuddling close for a sleep. He tries to avoid it when others are around, though, to avoid the ridicule. Plus he had to tonight anyways, – his room wouldn't be ready for a while.

"Jesus, your feet. They're frozen!" His mother gasps.

They lie there for a second before his mother breaks the silence. "Are you afraid?"

"A little." He answers truthfully as Carol caresses his hair. The wind picks up every now and then and the house timbers moan and creak.

"What's that noise?" He asks, a mixture of confusion and fear in his voice.

"Nothing – just the wind." His mother laughs quietly, holding him closer. "Nights here are different from city nights." She explains. "There you hear cars – the tramway. Here the houses are old. They creak."

The house ironically utters a series of rumbling noises, almost as a demonstration.

"As if they're speaking..."

There was a break in the conversation. His mother pulls her son close again, saying, "Tomorrow I'm going to give you a surprise."

"A surprise?"

"Yes."

"A book?" Ninten asks eagerly. His mother laughs at the obvious guess of the surprise, and says "No, something much better."

Then things took a serious turn when one question escaped Ninten's lips: "Why did you have to get married?"

His mother had to think of a way quickly to explain.

"I was alone too long."

 _I don't buy that mom..._

"I'm with you. You weren't alone. You were never alone."

"When you're older, you'll understand." His mother replies weakly.

 _Oh, not THAT excuse again._

"It hasn't been easy for me either," Carol says before wincing in pain.

"Your brother's at it again – tell him one of your stories. I'm sure he'll calm down."

Ninten eagerly rests his hand on his mother's stomach, excited to share one of his most favorite passions with his younger sibling. He moves closer to Carol's stomach.

He taps on her abdomen twice.

"My brother..." He taps. "My brother..."

He rests his head on his mom's belly, while the unborn child opens it's eyes in the amniotic fluid, and both mother and unborn listen.

 _ **Many, many years ago in a sad, faraway land, there was an enormous mountain made of rough, black stone. At sunset, on top of that mountain, a magic rose blossomed every night that made whoever plucked it immortal. But no one dared go near it because its thorns were full of poison. Men talked amongst themselves about their fear of death, and pain, but never about the promise of eternal life. And every day, the rose wilted, unable to bequeath its gift to anyone... forgotten and lost at the top of that cold, dark mountain, forever alone, until the end of time.**_

It was nice the way the stick insect was observing the two.

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~oO0Oo~

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The improvised office is in one of the lower rooms, where the gigantic mill wheel and the wooden gears lie, steel gears shine like metallic stars on a small swatch of black velvet. Tweezers pick them up and put them into place within the workings of a watch. Using a jeweler's magnifying glass, Giygas oils and closes up his pocket watch while he listens to cuplé on a phonograph.

The doctor comes to the door and knocks. Giygas motions for him to enter, which he does.

"How is she?" He asks.

"Very weak," Jeff replies.

Giygas closes the watch and removes the magnifying glass.

"She'll have as much rest as she needs. I'll sleep down here." Jeff continues

"And my son?"

"Your-?"

They are interrupted by Everdred and another soldier coming into the room. "Excuse us, Captain."

Giygas raises a hand, silencing them. He repeats. "My son. How is he?"

"For the moment, there's no reason to be alarmed," Jeff concludes.

"Very good," Giygas says, getting up and picks up a cigarette. But Jeff wasn't finished. "Captain, your wife shouldn't have traveled at such a late stage of pregnancy.

Giygas replies with a mouthful of smoke, followed by, "Is that your opinion?"

"My professional opinion, yes, sir."

The Captain walks up to the young doctor, so they are eye to eye. "A son should be born wherever his father is. That's all." He takes another puff of the cigarette and continues walking towards his men.

"One more thing, Captain." Giygas stops, annoyed. "What makes you so sure the baby is a male?"

Giygas turns around, laughs. "Don't fuck with me." With that, Giygas follows his men outside.

"At eight o'clock, we detected movement in the northwestern sector. Gunfire." They walk over to the left side of the mill. "Sergeant Beyona searched the area and captured a suspect. The other one's his son, here from the town."

The men approach the suspects, who are being held tightly by a soldier each.

"Captain, my father is an honest man-"

"I'll decide that." Giygas interrupts the son, roughly nineteen years of age. "Take your hat off when you talk to me!"

The boy quietly obeys while the sergeant named Beyona hands the Captain a small gauge rifle and a small leather pouch.

"We found this weapon – it's been fired."

"My father was hunting rabbits, Captain." The son says.

"Again – keep quiet." Giygas then proceeds to go through the man's bag. He takes out a piece of paper and reads aloud. "'No God, nor government, nor master?' Just like that – how do you like that?" He shows Everdred, who says, "Red propaganda, sir."

The young man sweats, shakes, holding his hands together tightly, showing obvious signs of anxiety. "It's not propaganda, sir."

"Shh..."

"It's an old almanac, Captain." The father says. "We're just farmers."

Giygas continues to go through the bag, throwing to the ground each and every paper he can see. "Go on." He says.

"I went up into the woods, Captain, to hunt for rabbits. For my daughters. They're sick."

Giygas then proceeds to pull out a half empty bottle of wine from the bag. He uncorks it and takes a whiff. "Rabbits, uh?"

"Captain, if my father says so, he was hunting rabbits." The boy interrupts again. Giygas shoots him a look that would strike him dead where he stood if looks could murder. He corks back the wine and walks over to the boy, bottle in hand.

Then he swings.

Without warning, he flattens the boy's nose with the bottle's bottom. The father screams horrified, but without the guts to intervene.

Giygas lifts the son up, bashing his nose, again and again, leveling bone and cartilage, blood flooding from the wound.

"Leave him alone!" The father yells.

Giygas drops the boy, who falls to the ground spitting blood.

"You killed him, you killed him! Murderer! Son of a bitch!"

He turns to the father and shoots him twice in cold blood, then turns to the son and shoots him once, in the head. Then all is silence. The distant whistle of a train can be heard. Giygas heads back towards Everdred and calmly searches the pouch. He throws out the rest of the remaining papers and then pulls out two dead rabbits by their long ears. He stares coldly at Everdred.

"Maybe you'll learn to search these assholes properly before you come bothering me." He blames.

"Yes, Captain."

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~oO0Oo~

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Young Ninten awakes from his sleep, wide-eyed. The contrast between silence and the dry rattling moving throughout the room is too much. A soft ululation at the window, which is half open, and the curtains billow. The mill groans, and Ninten is now restless and scared.

Another dry clicking noise.

"Mother. Mother, wake up!" He whispers.

No response. His mother doesn't move.

"Mother, there's something in the room."

Something shifts in the ceiling beams. Ninten looks up, searching. It startles the boy enough to leap out of bed.

 _Screw this, I'm out of here!_

He moves to the edge of the bed, and slowly and carefully places on – just one – of his bare feet on the carpet. It's soft against his flesh, and his muscles relax. Suddenly something the size of a human hand scurries past his feet and hides under the bed.

He quickly gasps in fear and pulls his feet back under the covers for protection.

Then, pulling at the goose down comforter, the stick insect climbs up into the bed. Ninten looks from the opposite side of the bed, clutching a bundle of blankets to his chest. He cocks his head, then, when they both realize they've seen one another, they both relax, and the insect slowly approaches the boy. When Ninten sees the insect has no scary intentions, he smiles.

"Hello. Did you follow me here?"

The stick insect clicks in mandibles.

"Are you a fairy?"

The stick insect regards him with curiosity.

"Look!" He says, excitedly. He reaches to the bedside table, picks up a book, flips through it, and shows the stick insect the illustration. A simple sketch of a fairy.

"This is a fairy." He says, tapping the picture.

The stick insect mimics the fairy drawn in the book. It flaps its wings, turns around, and withing five seconds, it turns into that exact fairy in real life.

Ninten is clearly shocked, not believing this is real, or happening. The fairy is green, with four wings that have a view similar to leaves. It has a human-ish anatomy complete with fingers, toes, two eyes, and pointy ears.

Suddenly, in flies upwards, it's wings fluttering quickly. It places itself in front of Ninten's face and swings its arms to its chest, motioning for the boy to come.

The boy smiles. "You want me to go with you?"

The fairy nods, and points towards the window.

His smile stays, showing interest. "Outside? Where?"


	3. Chapter 3

The green fairy flies outside swiftly, but Ninten is able to follow behind quite quickly. Too excited to waste any time, he only slips on a jacket, hat, and his shoes – and _runs_ outside. This is a _real fairy!_

Ninten stops. The creature has led him to the labyrinth, which is in a bath of moonlight. Good thing, cause he didn't bring a flashlight. But the moonlight provided much light, that he can see clearly.

The fairy chirps, and flies into the first passage of the labyrinth. Ninten cautiously enters. Trees and roots crowd the broken niches as if fused with the stone. Some of the pathways are blocked by gnarled trees that have grown through the rock.

Ninten pulls his jacket closer around his body, wandering through the narrow, spooky pathways. The fairy guides him and stays close so he doesn't lose his way, motioning with its arm every once in a while to keep up.

The thirteen-year-old rounds a wall. He's at the rotunda at the centre of the labyrinth. There's nothing there, except for a giant hole in the middle of the ground. Around the edge of the hold, connected to the ground is a stone ground – almost like a well.

Ninten draws closer, to see that it's actually a stone staircase, drawing down into the dark, unknown soil.

The fairy flies down quickly at break-neck speed.

 _I guess I'm supposed to follow down..._

He looks down into the depths and cautiously makes his way down the stairs. Once down, he looks around the dark room. The floor has the outline of the circular maze etched into its stone. In the centre of the maze – directly where he is at the moment on its map – has a tall, stone statue built. The entire room including the walls and floor are covered with moss, dirt, vines, and what looks like a tree in the corner.

"Hello?" He yells. "Hello?"

The room returns his cry again and again.

The fairy flies to the statue, and the boy follows.

It's actually a large, stone slab, and carved into it is the picture of a boy, a baby, and what looks like a goat – or what Ninten guessed from all his fairy tale knowledge, a faun...?

The curious boy looks around again and wanders around the room.

"Echo? Echo. Hello?" The words bounce around the room, echoing throughout the stone.

The fairy zooms around and lands on the branch of the mossy tree.

The tree moves around, revealing a face, and makes the sound of what sounds like a snore. The fairy jumps off. The face opens its eyes.

"It's you." It says, a hint of excitement in its voice.

Ninten turns around quickly, startled. The tree was actually – as he guessed – a faun. His face is somewhat a mixture of a goat and a human, with some indents in his skin above his eyes that look like a small, circular maze. His hair is long and matches his longish mane. His arms and legs look like tree trunks, and what Ninten finds most interesting about that, is that his legs didn't look like any form of legs he's ever seen. They look more like half of a bottom leg, then another leg growing out of the front where the knee was – almost like a tree branch.

The faun gasps. "It's you. You've returned." The faun is clearly excited while Ninten is clearly the opposite. He steps back a step. The faun realizes the situation, and the fear in Ninten's eyes, and shakes his hands in front of his face. "Don't be frightened, I beg you."

He reaches to his side and opens up a small wicker basket. Two things fly out, one red, one blue. They're fairies! They look exactly like the green one does. They fly around the room. "Look – look!" The faun says, followed by a very old sounding slow laugh. His ears twitch, and he produces a smile, with kind eyes.

The voice sounded painful.

The boy looks at the fairies, grabs his red bandana awkwardly, and returns the smile.

"My name is Ninten. Who are you?"

"Me?" The faun questions, pointing to himself. He then waves away the question with his hand and begins wandering around the room while talking. "I've had so many names... Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the woods, and the earth. I am..." He tries to pronounce his name, but the sound that Ninten hears sounds more like a painful grunt and gasp. He turns to Ninten. "I am... a faun. Your most humble servant, Your Highness..." He says, bowing politely. As he bows to him, moonlight dapples his body. His coarse hooves and the strange angle of his legs make his courtly manner clumsy yet oddly gracious.

Ninten shakes his head. "No, I'm-"

"You are Prince Monery, son of the king of the underworld."

Ninten continues to shake his head. "My father was a tailor."

"You are not born of man." The faun disagrees, shakes his finger, then waving off Ninten's sentence. "It was the moon that bore you. Look on your left shoulder, and you'll find a mark that proves it."

Ninten instinctively touches his left shoulder, with a strange expression on his face.

 _How does he know about that birthmark?_

"Your real father had us open up portals all over the world to allow your return." He continues.

Ninten still keeps his grip on the handkerchief around his neck and starts playing with one of the loose threads.

"This... is the last of them." The faun says, extending his hands outward like a 'Y', gesturing about the well around them. "But we have to make sure that your essence is intact, that you have not become a mortal." He explains, pointing his long, wooden branch of a finger multiple times at the confused boy.

The faun suddenly gasps like he's remembered something, and reaches for his messenger bag hanging at his side. "You must complete three tasks before the moon is full." He produces a large, leather-bound book, as well as a small leather bag, and Ninten looks on, face full of interest and wonder. "This is the Book of Crossroads. Open it when you are alone-"

The faun gives the boy the items, Ninten shakes the bag close to his ear. It sounds like there are stones in there, but he's not sure.

"-and it will show you your future, show you what must be done." He and the fairies step back into the shadows and disappear.

Ninten opens the book but finds it blank. No matter how many pages he turns, they're all blank. It looks more like a sketchbook.

"But there's nothing in here." He states.

No response.

He's alone.

He closes the book and hugs it to his chest.

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~oO0Oo~

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The next morning, a shirtless Giygas shaves with a switchblade while listening to music on a phonograph. He then sits at a wooden table, cigarette in mouth, arm up one of his leather boots – shining them methodically. This is obviously a daily ritual for him. By his side are the two scrawny rabbits he impounded the night before.

Paula brings in a breakfast tray and starts to unload it.

"Paula. Prepare these rabbits for dinner tonight." He commands.

Paula stops and picks up the two rabbits by the ears, inspecting them closely.

"They are too young." She explains.

"Well, maybe they'll do for a stew."

"Yes, sir."

She turns to leave, rabbits in hand, when he stops her.

"This coffee was burnt. Taste it yourself."

He hands her the tin cup of brown liquid. She grabs it, and takes a quick sip, and swallows. She hands it back, and he places a hand on her shoulder. There is something unpleasant about this sudden contact. Something too familiar, but she bears it in silence.

"You should keep an eye on it." He says. His hand slides off her shoulder, down her arm.

 _Awkward..._

"As you wish, sir."

She walks out, towards the kitchen in the next room. She walks down the four wooden stairs and hands the rabbits to a cook. "Cook these."

The kitchen is enormous. The open charcoal cookstove is two meters high by five meters wide. Two old, stout cooks wash the gigantic wooden work table with boiling water.

"He didn't like the coffee..." Paula explains.

"He's nothing but a fussy dandy. A fussy dandy." One cook says.

"We're going to need some beef and one more chicken," Paula says out loud, picking up two buckets of hot water.

"Where are we supposed to find that?"

"The doctor's wife, the mayor's too."

Paula walks out.

"Well, they eat more than a couple of pigs." The cooks talk amongst themselves.

"And they won't shut up."

"Not even underwater."

Upstairs, Paula and another servant empty wooden buckets of water into a porcelain bathtub. Steam dances around the room and the single, circular window above the tub lights the room easily.

"I'll be back in a moment, Paula." The servant says, which Paula nods, holding a hand to her hot head.

Outside the bathroom, in the bedroom, Carol opens up one of her trunks. Ninten is as well, a red and black checkered bathrobe wrapped around his body, yet he still had his shirt and bandana on from last night.

"Ninten." His mother says excitedly, placing something on her lap, then turns around in her wheelchair. "Your father is giving a dinner party tonight. Look what I made for you."

She lifts up a fine, handsome green dress shirt, black suit, and a dark green tie. The tuxedo is very nice.

"Do you like it?"

Ninten says nothing. Dress shirts were never really his thing. He'd rather just wear his favourite t-shirt and his bandana – even if it was a green silk one, he'd make an effort to like it. He looks at the clothing like the suit was more of a strange artifact than something he'd _ever_ wear.

"What your father wouldn't have given to have a tuxedo as fine as this when he was your age. And look at these shoes!"

She holds up a pair of expensive leather dress shoes. "Do you like them?"

Ninten makes an effort and smiles a weak smile, not wanting to make his mother sad after a suit she worked so hard to make for him.

"Yes - they're very cool."

But Carol is not fooled. She still smiles but you can tell in her face that she knows her son. "Go on now, take your bath."

He obeys, and walks into the bathroom, while Carol starts fumbling with the buttons on his dress shirt.

Ninten closes the two wooden doors and locks them. He then walks to the nearby air pipes, and squats beside them, and shoves his arm behind them. He struggles for a couple seconds, but eventually pulls out that leather-bound book from the night before. He looks back to make sure his mother is not watching. He makes his way to the tub, sits on the edge, and opens the blank book. He turns a page, then he sees ink forming on the page.

 _Am I seeing things?_

The ink spreads across the page, drawing pictures, and writing words of a story. He places his hand on the paper and runs it along its surface. It starts with the blacks, then the browns, then the greens. In a fairy tale themed picture, the image shows a boy – Ninten guessing it was him – squatting inside a rather large hole in a rather large tree.

It's branches twist into circles, and it's root spiral across the page. The letters start to take form. _**Once upo**_ -

 _BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!_

"Ninten?" His mother.

He slams the book shut.

 _BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!_

"Ninten?"

He still doesn't answer.

"Ninten? Hurry up. I want to see the suit on you." His mother calls excitedly.

The boy walks towards the nearby mirror to his left.

"I want you to be handsome for the Captain." She says.

The boy removes his bathrobe from one shoulder – his left. He examines the birthmark on his bicep. It looks exactly like a crescent moon, and three dots beside it, reminding him of stars.

"You'll look like a prince." His mother states at the door, smiling.

Ninten places his hand beside the moon on his shoulder.

He then talks to himself.

And smiles.

"A prince?"


	4. Chapter 4

In the kitchen, Paula skillfully chops a potato, then drops it and cleans the small knife in her apron. As doing so, she looks up at the other cooks. "Make sure those chickens are cleaned properly. And don't forget the beans."

The three cooks she's talking to all stop what they're doing suddenly, and all look into the same direction. All is silent. Paula turns around, and they all observe Ninten walking down the stairs. He's dressed in the tuxedo, tie around his neck instead of the bandana they are so used to seeing him in.

"You look marvelous, my boy, just handsome!" One of the cooks says.

"What a gorgeous suit!" The others say.

Paula stares at her awkward friend with a smile, then looks back to the cooks. "Get back to work, stop wasting time."

She then turns back to Ninten.

"Do you want some milk with honey?" She asks her friend.

 _Sure, why not? I am thirsty..._

He nods.

Outside, Paula squeezes the utters of a cow, milk squirting out into a wooden bowl.

"Move back. We can't have you getting milk on your suit, with you looking so handsome."

Ninten blushes and continues petting the cow.

"Paula..." He begins.

 _How do I tell her I saw a fairy last night? She's gonna think I'm a baby..._

 _Just go for it. Say it!_

He looks at his friend. "Do you believe in fairies?"

Paula looks at the boy and stops for a second.

Ninten sweats a bit and has a sheepish look on his face.

"No." She says simply. "But when I was a little girl, I did." She continues to milk the cow. "I believed in a lot of things I don't believe in anymore."

The cow lets out a "moo" and the girl shushes it, giving it a pat on its side. Ninten leans in. "Last night, a fairy visited me." He says, honestly.

The girl looks up. She sees the seriousness in his eyes, but judging by the amount of fairy tales he carried in his arms the day before, she isn't so sure. "Really?" Paula scoops some milk into a small bowl and wipes off the milk leaking off the sides.

"And it wasn't alone," He continues. "There were lots of them, and a faun, too."

"A faun?"

"He was very old, very tall and smelled like earth."

Giygas and Everdred approach the two teens.

"My mother warned me to be wary of fauns."

"Paula!" Giygas calls. The two look at the army men. "Come with me."

The two men and Paula walk towards the storage building connected to the mill. Guards unload giant stacks of provisions from trucks. A Civil Guard captain supervises the operation and greets Giygas.

"Captain," He says. "Everything is here."

The men walk into the bodega filled with grain, bottles of wine, barrels of oil, salt and sugar, and other things.

"Flour, salt, oil, medicine, olives, bacon..."

Giygas grabs a small, paper packaged box from a pile and sniffs. "This – this is real tobacco."

"And the ration cards." The captain says, handing over some paper cards.

Paula stands beside a pile of boxes, all marked with a first-aid symbol. Her eyes widen, stunned by all of the supplies. These supplies are way more than enough for all the people at the mill. They really _are_ luring the rebels here...

"Paula." He says. She turns around. "The key."

"Yes, sir." She hands him the key. He takes it in his gloved hand and places it in the large, iron padlock.

"Is this the only copy?" He asks.

"The only one."

"From now on, I'll carry it." He says.

 _Dammit._

"Captain!" A soldier calls. Giygas walks over, who is handed a pair of binoculars. "Captain, perhaps it's nothing."

He peers into the tool and gazes into the terrain filled with trees. Smoke plumes out through the tall greens in a thin line over the horizon. Giygas removes the binoculars.

"It's them."

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~oO0Oo~

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A young boy in a tuxedo named Ninten walks through the forest and opens the Book of Crossroads. He quickly glances back to see his "father" and some of his men racing up the mountain on horseback. He looks back down to the book and reads out loud to himself.

 _ **Once upon a time, when the woods were young, they were home to creatures who were full of magic and wonder. They protected one another and slept in the shade of a colossal fig tree that grew on a hill near the mill. But now, the tree is dying. Its branches are dry, it's trunk old and twisted. A monstrous toad has settled in its roots, and won't let the tree thrive. You must put the three magic stones in the toad's mouth and retrieve the golden key from inside the toad's belly. Only then will the fig tree flourish again.**_

When the boy stops reading and wandering, he finds himself looking up at the same tree described in the book, picture and all. The colossal fig tree _is o_ ld and twisted. It's branches _are_ dry. He walks up to the tree, which has a large hole in its trunk, and you can go under it, into its roots. The boy opens up the small, leather, drawstring bag the faun gave him and rolls out the three magic stones. They are reddish gold, but not perfectly round. About the size of golf balls, they clatter in his fleshy palm. He then looks down at his black dress shoes and sees wet, sloppy mud dripping off the bottom. There is a huge mud puddle around the tree he didn't see.

 _Shit. Mom's gonna murder me._

Deciding not to dirty up the suit, he slips everything off except for his boxers and shoes, and hangs it on a nearby branch. He then turns to the wood and steps into the shade of the colossal fig tree.

As he gets on his hands and knees and crawls down into its muddy roots, a gust of wind sends his green tie flying.

Ninten crawls amongst the muddy ground. The tree's passageways between the roots are narrow and claustrophobic. The air is hot, making the boy sweat buckets, yet he still crawls slowly. He stops and looks at the passageway ahead. Large pillbugs roughly the size of 'D' batteries crawl wildly amongst the brown, muddy ground. One crawls up his right forearm, and when he notices it, he gasps, and wipes it off his flesh, leaving a long, thick streak of mud down his arm from his muddy hand.

He continues.

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~oO0Oo~

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The men ride through the forest, trying to get to that smoke quickly. They stop at the source and dismount. Giygas removes his glove when he finds the remains of a campfire. He bends down and places his bare hand above the smoke that's left.

"They were here less than twenty minutes ago. They left in a hurry. A dozen men at most."

He picks up a small, paper package hidden under some shrubs that stands a very clear resemblance to the one Jeff gave to Paula – but he does not know... He brushes it off, takes something out, and hands the paper package to one of his men. He holds up a small, glass vial up to the sunlight. It's thin, round, and has a pointed cap.

"Antibiotics..." He mumbles to himself.

"Shit." He hears Everdred say. "They forgot this lottery ticket." He pulls on it a couple of times. Suddenly, Giygas raises a hand, silencing him.

"They're here... Those sons of bitches are here... And they're watching us." He takes a couple of steps forward and held the vial up to the forest.

"Hey!" He shrieks. "You left this behind! And your lottery ticket! Why don't you come back and get it? Who knows? This could be your lucky day!"

Silence.

He brings the vial back down, pissed. He storms back to his horse, and rides off, along with his men.

Invisible under the trees, six young men are indeed watching. Among them is a young Ness. A thin, serious young man of fifteen. He holds his handgun tightly in his fist. Under his brown coat is his favorite striped yellow and blue shirt. Camouflage is super important with the color he wears. And although he can't wear his red and blue baseball cap, he wears a simple brown one until they are indeed alone, and hiding from the men that are hunting them like dogs.

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten's progress is slow. He crawls on all fours and is _very_ muddy. Bugs crawl all over his hands, arms, and feet, but he got so tired of wiping them all of that he no longer cares.

He looks around for the monstrous toad, but he can't see anything other than roots, mud, and bugs.

He then hears a heavy breathing behind him.

A drop of sweat rolls down his neck.

 _What. The Fuck. Is that?_

He crawls around slowly and comes face to face with the biggest motherfucking toad he's ever seen. As high as a stool and as long as a microwave oven, this thing is no laughing matter. It's large yellow eyes blink, it's cheeks puff rhythmically in and out.

The boy clutches the magic stones so roughly, they cut into his hands, and they bleed and blister.

"H-hello. I'm Prince Monery, and I'm not afraid of you." He says to the reptile, his voice shaken and scared. He looks at the stones in his hand and clutches them to his chest.

"Aren't you ashamed living down here, eating all these bugs?" He asks. A large pillbug crawls up his neck and around his cheek. "And growing fat while the tree dies?"

The toad suddenly sticks out it's long, brown tongue, which flattens against Ninten's face. The boy drops the stones in shock as the tongue slides off, taking the bug with it. A string of saliva connects his tongue and Ninten's spit covered cheek, and the boy gives the frog a disgusted look, almost wanting to throw up.

The frog sucks it's tongue and bug right into its mouth and swallows, a long drip of drool sliding down its chin.

Gluttony.

Ninten quickly gathers up the stones, and holds them to his chest again, and stares at that huge mess.

 _How do I give these fricking stones to it? These definitely aren't suppositories... Thank God..._

Ninten couldn't tell if the following was a burp or a loud growl, but whatever it was, it smelt like _shit_. It is so long, powerful, continuous, it almost knocks the boy on his ass. But he pulls through, fighting it.

He looks back at the stones, hopeless.

 _Wait, I didn't have four stones._

One of the stones opens up, revealing an uncurled pillbug.

 _Pillbugs look like stones..._

He picks it up – big, fat, and juicy. The toad looks on with excitement.

Ninten holds it up. "Hey," he says, shaking it and teasing the definition of disgusting. The toad licks it's lips and the boy puts the bug among the rocks and holds out his enclosed fist.

The toad wastes no time. It shoots out that tongue, and it wraps around the boy's wrist. Ninten opens up his fingers, and the tongue pulls. The boy tries hard not to go with it, and eventually the bug is gone. And so are the stones.

The black haired boy looks at his muddy palm, saliva stringing his fingers together. Looking up, the frog looks like it's about to vomit. The toad croaks violently, and opens it's mouth, and roars in pain. A giant yellow blob containing many pillbugs is violently pushed out of that huge mouth, and the boy just looks terrified. The blob falls to the floor and so does the frog's skin. Like a snake, it's just skin.

Disgusting.

Ninten moves slowly to the blob and reaches onto its center, for there is a golden key lying amongst the blood and bugs. He pulls it off, and strings of goo come along for the ride. The key shimmers brightly as Ninten looks at it.

When the boy emerges from the tree, it's already evening. He leans against its trunk and breathes. His face shows signs of obvious exhaustion. His entire body is filthy and sweaty. But, golden key in fist, he looks at the branch where his clothes are. Correction: where his clothes _were_.

Light thunder rumbles in the distance.

A few meters away, he finds his suit, covered in wet, mossy mud.

 _Shit._

He walks up to it and picks it up.

It starts to rain. Heavily.

 _SHIT!_

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~oO0Oo~

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Giygas looks at his ticking pocket watch under an umbrella. A pair of Bentleys sweeps into the driveway. Elegant dinner guests get out of the cars: the mayor, his wife, and a parish priest. Soldiers open up umbrellas and cover the guests.

In the dining room, Paula wheels Ninten's mother out into the room.

"Have you checked his room? And the pantry?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Have you checked the garden?"

Paula nods.

"And the barn?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Where is that boy?"

"This way, please," Vidal says, guiding the guests into the room. Paula turns Carol around. "Let me introduce you to my wife, Carol."

"Charmed." The mayor's wife says.

"A pleasure to meet you," Carol replies back, shaking the lady's hand.

At dinner, Giygas shows the ration cards at the table. "From now on, one ration card per family." He says.

Seated around the table is Jeff and his wife, the mayor and his wife, Everdred, the Civil Captain, Carol, Giygas, and the Priest.

"Take a look at them." He says, giving the set down, the rest passing them out.

"One?"

"Only one."

"Captain, I'm not sure if it'll be enough." The mayor says, voice full of concern.

"If people are careful, it should be plenty." The priest replies, dishing himself some potatoes.

"We can't allow anyone to send food to the guerrillas up in the mountains," Giygas explains. "They're losing ground, and one of them is wounded."

"Excuse me, Captain," Jeff interrupts, wiping his face with a napkin, "how can you be so sure?"

"We almost got them today." Giygas replies. "We found this." He holds up the vial they got into their possession earlier that day. "Antibiotics."

Nothing but the roaring fireplace behind Giygas speaks for a second, then the priest says out loud, "God has already saved their souls. What happens to their bodies hardly matters to Him."

Jeff and Paula who're also in the room exchange very worried glances.

 _This is getting too dangerous..._

"We'll help you in any way we can, Captain." The mayor says. "We know you're not here by choice."

The Captain cleans his mouth with a napkin, puts down his utensils, and speaks. "You're wrong about that. I choose to be here because I want my son to be born in a new, clean Eagleland. Because these people hold the mistaken belief that we're all equal. But there's a big difference: the war's over, and we won. And if we need to kill all these vermin to settle it, then we'll kill them all, and that's that."

What makes this scene utterly _disturbing_ is the smile of pure pleasure on Giygas' face when he says his speech.

The Captain raises his glass. "We're all here by choice."

The others follow his example. "By choice!"

This is too much for Paula to take, as she is now eavesdropping in the kitchen. She grabs her jacket, a lantern, and says "Put the coffee on, I'm going for more wood." And then she was out. Even though the cooks say "We'll take care of it," before she slams the door.

The girl calmly walks to the edge of the forest, on the verge of tears, and holds her hand in front of the lantern, then removes it.

 _Come on... See the morse code..._

She turns around and sees a muddy boy walking down the hill.

"Ninten?" She asks quietly. He walks quickly to her, arms clutching a book. He's shuttering, mud caked all over his body.

Paula puts her hand under the boy's chin.

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~oO0Oo~

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The mayor's wife cut the rabbit on her plate.

"So – how did you and the Captain meet?" Jeff's wife asks Carol.

Carol put her hand on her husband's, his face showing he was uncomfortable, saying "Ninten's father used to make the Captain's uniforms."

"Oh, I see..."

"After he died, I went to work at the shop. A little more than a year ago, the Captain and I met again."

Giygas moves his hand away from Carol's.

"Curious, isn't it?" Jeff's wife adds. "I mean, finding each other again?"

The mayor's wife laughs, "Oh yes, very, very curious."

Giygas had had enough. He slams his cup down and says "Please, forgive my wife. She hasn't been exposed to the world. She thinks these silly little stories are interesting to others." He jams some meat into his mouth, while Carol looks down. Ashamed.

Paula comes in and bends down to Carol. "Ninten is here." She whispers.

"Excuse me." She says, Paula wheeling her out of the room. All the men stand up out of the chairs, until the ladies are out of the room, and they take their seats.

"Have I told you," The Civil Captain says, "that I was antiquated with your father, Captain?"

"No, I had no idea."

"In Chommo. I knew him only briefly but he left a great impression. An excellent soldier. The men in his battalion said that when General Giygas died on the battlefield, he smashed his watch on a rock so that his son would know the exact hour and minute of his death. So he would know how a brave man dies."

All eyes turned to Giygas.

"Nonsense. He didn't own a watch." He says, jamming a piece of rabbit into his mouth.

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten's mother stares at the suit on her lap, moving it around, shaking her head sadly. "What you've done hurts me."

Her son is floating in a tub of warm, soapy water.

"When you've finished your bath, you'll go to bed _without_ supper." His mother commands.

Ninten listens in silence, holding back, looking down and playing with the bubbles floating in the water.

"Are you listening?"

The boy looks up, and nods once.

"Sometimes I think you'll never learn to behave..." She says sadly. "You've disappointed me, Ninten." She turns the wheelchair. "And your father, too."

"You mean the Captain?" Ninten asks, drawing near the edge of the tub.

"Him more than me." His mother replies, almost coldly.

The faintest trace of satisfaction is visible of Ninten's face as his mother leaves.

He leans back into the bath, looks down, and smiles.

All the dirt is gone, and he is virtually clean. The warm water feels amazing and soothes his aching muscles and bones.

The stick insect flies into the open window, and perches itself on the edge of the tub, greeting Ninten.

"I've got the key." He whispers to the insect.

It looks at him.

"Take me to the labyrinth."


	5. Chapter 5

With the golden key clutched tightly in his fist against his chest, Ninten makes his way down the stone staircase to the bottom of the well in his pajamas. He walks to the monolith and observes the etching again.

 _Is that the faun holding me? What is the baby doing there?_

The stick insect flies around the room quickly, almost excitedly while Ninten places his hand against the boy's face, and slides it against the stone.

The stick insect turns into the green fairy and flies behind Ninten, who looks behind himself. Emerged from the shadows is the faun, chewing violently on a piece of raw meat.

 _I don't even want to know what kind of meat that is..._

"Hello." He says awkwardly, feeling kind of weird that a magic creature has to see him in his blue and white striped pajamas and blue slippers.

He holds the key outward. "I got the key out."

"That's me, and the boy is you." The faun interrupts and points to the etching.

"And the baby?"

The faun stops and stares at the thirteen-year-old for a second. "So – you retrieved the key." He says, changing the subject. Ninten thinks about repeating his question but decides against it. The faun bends down slightly and extends his head so it's less than a meter away from Ninten's face. "I'm glad." He gives a slight laugh, then stands back, extending his pointer finger to let the green fairy stand atop it. It does so, and violently tears off a piece of the meat, and starts feasting.

Ninten isn't used to the fairy acting so violently, and he watches with a face filled with uneasiness.

"She believed in you from the very beginning. She's very glad you've succeeded." The fairy jumps up and flies around some more, and the faun laughs, watching it as if it were a pet bird.

The faun raises a hand, then rolls down all his fingers except for the pointer. "Keep the key. You'll be needing it very soon. And this too."

He bends down and hands the teen a white stick.

"A piece of chalk."

He then starts to caress the boy's cheek with his dirty, branch fingers. Ninten's head backs up slightly at the awkward touch.

"Two tasks remain and the moon is almost full."

He moves his finger down to his chin and flicks it up.

"Be patient. We'll soon stroll through the seven circular gardens of your palace."

"How do I know that what you say is true?" The boy asks.

The faun stops, surprised by the sudden question.

"Why would a poor little faun like me lie to you?" He answers simply, running a pointer finger down from his eye to his cheek.

Ninten takes this opportunity to leave, while the faun stares at him the whole time smiling widely.

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~oO0Oo~

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The storehouse lock opens, and Giygas lets the doors swing open. "Proceed." He says simply, allowing the large line of people to enter. "Have your cards ready for inspection! Let's go!" A soldier at a desk calls. "Your name?" He asks. Meanwhile, Paula and the other cooks start bringing out baskets of bread to bring into the mill. Each piece is contained in a brown bag with a legend printed. The Civil Captain takes a piece from the basket as Paula walks by, and recites the legend as Paula and the others pass them out.

 _This is our daily bread in Eagleland! Which we keep safe in this mill. The Reds lie when they say there's hunger in Eagleland. Because in a united Eagleland, there's not a single home without a warm fire or without bread._

Awakening from the ruckus outside, Ninten slips out of bed next to his mother. While his mother sleeps on, Ninten heads toward the bathroom. When he's just about there, his mother moans softly. He looks backwards towards the bed but continues until he's locked inside. He sits on the edge of the tub again, and reads from the Book of Crossroads, kept safe in the bathroom, hidden.

"Come on. Show me what happens now."

Red.

One large circle on each page and one small in the centre. The big circles are connected to the small by a small line each. It flows down the centre of the book.

He looks up towards the door, frightened.

Looking back down. He connects the dots quickly. That image looked like a uterus. Red. Blood. The page's red expands quickly as a deadly scream rings in his head.

He slams the book shut, not wanting to see anymore, as he is quite frightened.

Blood. Uterus...

 _Oh no._

He looks at the door, and walks quickly towards it, dropping the book to the floor as his bare feet slap against the tile.

He opens the door.

Everything happens so quickly. His mother walking on the floor, leaning on the foot of the bed. Her hand clutching her privates through atop her clothes. Blood clearly staining the nightdress there, and flowing downwards to the floor.

The whole floor is covered in a trail of blood. His mother sweats violently.

"Ninten... help me." She mumbles, shaking, lifting up a bloody hand in his direction.

Ninten _ran_. He burst out the front doors amongst everybody in his bare feet, pajamas, and bedhead – all his glory - but he didn't care one bit. He ran in Giygas' direction.

"Captain! Captain!" He shrieks.

Giygas walks quickly towards the boy.

"Come quickly!"

They both dash inside, while that stupid Civil Captain just keeps repeating that same damn legend. Over and over.

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~oO0Oo~

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The Captain and Jeff stand in the afternoon rain.

"Your wife needs uninterrupted rest," Jeff explains. "She'll have to be sedated most of the time. The boy should sleep somewhere else. I'll stay here until the birth."

"Make her well." This is said simply while the voice's owner stared into space. "I don't care what it costs or what you need. Make her well."

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten stares at the filthy attic and the dark, low ceiling full of holes. He tries to ignore Paula and two of the other maids throwing a white comforter on a bed with two fluffy pillows.

The two maids leave.

He feels so alone.

He walks next to his bed, fairy tales under an arm, two suitcases in the others. He puts the suitcases on the floor and the books on his bedside table. He then sits on the edge of the bed.

He tries to fight back the tears, but he's not that strong, and a few slip out, sliding out his eyes down his cheeks. Paula places a hand on his shoulder and says from behind, "Don't worry. Your mother will get better, you'll see. Having a baby is complicated."

Even though the child knew he himself as a male could not physically birth children, he didn't want to take part in anything like this in his life.

"Then... I'll never have one." He mumbles tearfully.

Paula sees the sadness, and comes around and sits right beside him on the bed. She places a hand on his shoulder and strokes his hair.

He turns to her.

"You're helping the men in the woods, aren't you?"

That came out of the blue, and Paula froze.

She slowly takes her hands off him. "Have you told anyone?"

"No, I haven't." Ninten looks away from her. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

He leans back into her chest, another tear escaping his eye. Paula does nothing for a second, unsure of what to do in the awkward turn. She goes to place a hand on his head, but she realizes he needs someone. He needs more than a head rub.

She tries to hug him for a second, but can't figure out how to follow through.

Then she embraces him, pulling him close.

He sniffs.

The hug is soft, warm, affectionate. It's the only thing he ever needs at this point.

"Nor I to you." She replies.

The relationship between them has just kicked into overdrive.

"Do you know a lullaby?" He asks simply.

"Only one... But I don't remember the words."

"I don't care, I still want to hear it."

They both close their eyes and Paula hums. The hum is melancholic yet relaxing. She rocks him back and forth.

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~oO0Oo~

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Paula is alone in the kitchen in the night. She often looks behind her to make sure she's not caught. She carries a canvas bag. There is a low flame burning on the charcoal range.

She kneels down and removes a tile from the floor: she has hidden some food, a bottle of Orujo and some papers. She transfers everything to the canvas bag. Behind her, a shadow approaches, but she has no idea. As it comes closer, she stops, and whips her head around, startled.

"Don't be afraid! It's only me!" Jeff whispers loudly.

Paula replies with a exhale of relief. He comes close to her with a medical kit. "Are you ready?

"Yes."

"Well, let's go."

Walking through the forest in the early morning is very hard, but they keep pushing through. Walking through a creek, Jeff breaks the silence. "This is sheer madness. When that man finds out about us, he'll kill us all. Have you thought about that?"

The pair stop.

"Are you so afraid of him, Doctor?"

"It's not fear... at least not for myself."

Paula raises a finger to her lips, and they are silent. A noise. Then silence. The tree trunks sway and creak softly.

Something moves among the trees... Someone moves towards them, and when they connect eyes, no one is scared.

"Ness," Paula mumbles at the young guerrilla, "Ness, my brother!" They embrace.

"Paula." Ness mumbles. "I'm not your brother. I'm your friend!"

Paula knows this, but still continues to call him a brother, as they are so close, yet are always miles apart – physically.

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten slumbers softly as a shadow looms over him. The faun observes the boy. Ninten suddenly awakens, startled by the creature's silent gurgle. He sits up.

"You didn't carry out the task."

"No, my mother is sick."

"Bah, that's no excuse for negligence." He says, once again waving away Ninten's answer. "Look..." He says, pulling something tan-colored from his bag. "This is a mandrake root. A plant that dreampt of being human."

The plant looks like a curled up a child. Ninten looks at it, eyes gleaming with wonder.

"Put it under your mother's bed in a bowl of fresh milk." He instructs, giving the plant to the boy, who takes it, a slight look of revolt on his face. "Each morning, give it two drops of blood."

Ninten places the root aside.

"Now, we have no time to waste." The faun says, closing his hands together. "The full moon will be upon us." He stops, again like he's remembered something. He takes off his wicker basket as the fairies chirp inside it. "Take my pets to guide you through." Ninten takes this as well. "You're going to a very dangerous place, so be careful. The thing that slumbers there it is not human." He says shaking his head. He then hands him a third item – an hourglass – which he takes as well. "You will see a sumptuous feast, but don't eat or drink _anything_. Absolutely _nothing_. Your life depends on it." He says seriously.

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~oO0Oo~

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Paula, Ness, and Jeff arrive at a cave entrance and head inside. The walls are covered with soot. A dozen more guerrillas sit around an open fire in the middle of the cave. Candles are lit everywhere.

Paula begins to unpack her canvas bag and hands out the items.

"I've brought some Orujo, tobacco, cheese. Mail for Caitlyn and Izzie."

Jeff walks over to a man lying down on a pile of thick fabrics, reading a book weakly. "Let's see how that leg is doing, Frenchie," Jeff says, taking off his jacket.

"How do you think it's doing?" The man replies, "It's fucked up."

Jeff rolls up his sleeves. "Let's see." As he begins to take off the bandages, a stuttering boy reads aloud from a newspaper. The leg looks horrible. A large wound is on the front of his leg, stretching down from knee to ankle. It's grey. When Jeff touches around his leg, the man grunts in pain. "Is it really bad, Doctor?"

"Look, Frenchie..." Jeff takes off his glasses. "There's now way to save it." He states sadly.

Everyone goes quiet.

Jeff opens up his kit and produces a stainless steel bone saw.

Everyone is over to the older man, who is downing a bottle of alcohol.

Why wouldn't you? Perfect time, right?

He gives the bottle back.

"I'll try to make it in as few cuts as possible," Jeff tells the man, bending down.

The man nods.

Jeff places the saw on the man's shin, he can feel the pricks of the saw.

"Wait a second, Doctor, just a second."

Jeff obeys as Frenchie looks longingly at his leg. One last time ... Then, he takes hold of two men's arms. Paula and Ness put all their weight on the injured limb.

He nods.

Jeff slides the saw back, then pushes with all his might as he slides it to the right. The skin breaks and the saw slides into the bone with a rough, scratchy sound.


	6. Chapter 6

Ninten slides the Book of Crossroads out from its new hiding place: his bed frame. In his pajamas and bathrobe again, he opens the book.

 _ **Use the chalk to trace a door anywhere in your room. Once the door's open, start the hourglass. Let the fairies guide you. Don't eat or drink anything during your stay, and come back before the last grain of sand falls.**_

Ninten closes the book and heads to the wall to the right of his bed. Following per instructions, he starts the door. He slides the chalk on the concrete wall, listening as the white stick makes scratching sounds, and watching the lines turn white. The boy's eyes widen in amazement as the white chalk bubbles like acid on the wall and steams. Beside the white, a thin etch forms beside it, framing the openings for the door. The teen places his hand on the stone wall, and follows the crack's way down with his fingers, sliding his palm down the wall. He gets onto his hands and knees, and leans up against the stone, and pushes. The small door slides open with the sound of gritting stone and gold light fills the room.

 _Holy shit..._

The door opens to a long hallway. As Ninten's door is at the top of the wall, he places a chair on the hallway floor to get back in. Placing the wicker basket around his shoulder, he turns the hourglass, and steps inside.

The hallway is warm. The boy walks down a corridor with a low ceiling and a multitude of arches. Each column represents a tree with fanning branches. An elaborate mosaic pattern spreads over the floor; the ceiling fresco depicts the lunar cycle.

He checks back at the timer. It's starting to fill up with brown sand...

He continues.

He ends up at the end the hallway, and in some sort of dining room. He walks up to the large table. A large feast was an understatement. This was a cornucopia of food. Walking along the length of the table, he eyes all the food. Bottles of alcohol, bowls of cherries and grapes, a large roast, pumpkins and melons and cakes, pies, and Jello, bowls of berries. Ninten suddenly looks at the figure sitting at the end of the table, and jumps, beyond scared.

This thing... is _NOT_ human...

It is sitting down, entirely naked. Its entire anatomy was pale and literally looks like skin wrapped around bones. Its face is tight and veiny. It's nose isn't even a nose. There are just two black holes where the nose _should_ be. It has no eyes. It has no _motherfucking eyes._ Eyes aren't even part of this creature's anatomy. Just skin over the top his head. It's face is just terrifying. A blank, pale face with nothing but two holes and veins. Well, it _does_ have a mouth. A simple mouth that is more like a wide thin hole with dried blood around the edges. Loose skin and flab hang down from its chin to his neck. Its chest looks caved in – like it was starving. Its hands were resting on the table. They are normal looking hands, but the fingers grow longer, and the color goes from tan at the bottom, then blends with some red, and the tips of the fingers are black and are very pointy. Between it's hands is a copper plate, with two white spheres on them. Ninten reaches over cautiously and grabs it. He brings it to his face.

They were eyes. There were eyes on the plate. The teen moves the plate around a bit, observing the glossy balls with red iris', and completely red backs – like they were ripped from someone's eye socket.

The flames from the fireplace behind the chair crackle in the silence and make the boy start to sweat. He's not sure if it was from the stress of the whole situation and setting or the temperature.

He places the eyes back where they were.

He then looks up at the pictures painted on the ceiling as a child's agonized crying rings in his head.

 _Oh God..._

One shows the creature holding up a child to its mouth with one hand, the other bringing a sharp sword down on two others. The next shows this... _thing_ stabbing a naked boy through the chest, blood spurting out of the wound. There are two other children on their knees at the creature's feet, praying for their lives. The last shows the creature holding up a child, the others running in fear.

This place scares Ninten easily.

This _thing_ scares Ninten easily.

He looks to the left.

Stacked up against a pillar is a large pile of children's shoes. It reminds him of something left behind in a concentration camp.

 _This thing eats children..._

This place is evil.

Considering all the shoes, and this is a time where people are literally making almost stone soup for dinner, and being told _not_ to eat.

This place is pure evil.

This place is Hell.

Ninten decides that he needs support, seeing as though he's already wasted enough time, and has gotten nothing done but observation. He opens up the wicker fairies fly about the room until they point out a wall to the boy. Three tiny doors about the size of his open hand, each with a lock, are built into the wall. He walks up to them.

They buzz around the three niches, like flies around honey. They fan their wings repeatedly, vibrating, communicating, sniffing the gold doors.

The green fairy perches itself on the middle one and points to it repeatedly. The others spiral around the teen. He brings the key out of his robe's pocket. He observes the gold, then places it inside the middle door's lock. It goes in, but won't turn.

"No." He says. He goes to the left one and slides the key in. "This other one." It twists, unlocked!

He opens the door and sees something flat inside. He stretches his arm all the way in, the door touches his shoulder. He tries to pull the object out but struggles for a second before finally bringing it out into light.

About sixteen centimeters long, wrapped in a red rag, Ninten opens the rag to reveal a large, golden dagger.

He runs his fingers along its tip.

Wrapping the knife up, Ninten walks over to the table, while the fairies fly over and observe the pale monster. They then follow the boy who's observing the food. He then stops and turns around. A large pile of grapes.

His stomach rumbles from the lack of food as punishment the night before. They look so delectable.

 _Maybe just one..._

He looks back at the eerie, sitting figure: immobile and seemingly lifeless.

The green fairy flies in front of his face, shaking it's hands as if saying "No." He waves them off, away from his sight.

The red one tries this time, but he waves it off too.

 _So hungry... It's just one... Just one small grape... It won't even notice._

He twists off a moist, plump, juicy one – about the size of a large marble. Closing his eyes, he plops it into his mouth. As he chews, the fairies cover their eyes and fly away.

The fingers twitch and move around stretching. The creature raises its head and lets out a tired, raspy gasp of air. It takes an eyeball in its hand, and places it into an empty socket – in its hand! It pushes it in and does the same with the other. The pale creature raises it's eyes to it's head, and splays it's fingers like a peacock, and looks around. He hisses.

Ninten picks another grape.

 _Damn, these are good!_

The red fairy flies in front of the boy's face again, and he brushes it off. He raises the fruit to his mouth, but the green one pulls it back. Fed up, the boy tugs on it, and eats it, licking his fingers, unaware that the creature is a little more than a meter behind him. When the fairies are fed up, they rush behind the boy to attack, the boy looks as well, horror filling his eyes. The creature flailing its arms, swatting and snapping, the fairies just attack.

Ninten just stands there as the creature grabs the red and blue fairies, never gonna let go. He eats the red one first, placing the fairies head into its mouth, and bites down, severing it. It howls in pain as it pulls the fairy away from its mouth and long strings of guts connect from the two body parts, then it drops to the floor. Blood dribbles from the pale creature's mouth, then he tries the blue one. The fairy tries to push away from its mouth, but it goes in, chest up. It chomps down and severs the head of that one as well.

This is too much for the boy. He turns around, dagger in hand, and books it to the hallway, the green fairy following him.

 _Why did I have to eat that grape?_

The pale creature licks it's fingers of the blood and raises its hands to its head again and follow the boy as he runs. But then the creature stops again and raises its hand outwards. A child's agonized howl bounces through the walls of the hallway, and then the creature continues.

Ninten runs. He see's the chair and the door right there! But the last grain of sand has fallen. The door slowly creaks shut.

"No! NO!" The boy yells, but the door is already closed by the time he leaps on the chair. The lines slowly disappear from sight, returning to a normal wall, and sealing the teen in. He pounds on the wall, but on the other side, in the attic, you can barely hear anything.

He quickly places the knife in the wicker basket.

 _Quick thinking, quick thinking. Gotta think gotta think. Oh my God, it's COMING!_

Ninten grabs the chalk out from his bathrobe's pocket and pressed it to the wall. But he presses too hard, and it breaks in half, falling to the floor.

 _Shit shit SHIT!_

He stares at the little nub of chalk while the silhouette of the creature gets bigger on the wall.

 _Should I get the large piece? Oh, fuck it!_

Climbing on the backrest of the chair, Ninten can just touch the ceiling with the chalk. He quickly sketches out a new square door, and the chair rattles, going to fall over any moment.

He finishes connecting all the lines and immediately pushes upwards. If it weren't for the adrenaline shooting through his arms, he wouldn't have been able to push that cement upwards.

He pushed the door open and leaps for the floor connected with the ceiling through said door. The chair falls, and he scrambles with his feet. He digs his fingernails into each opening on the hardwood floor and pulls himself out. The creature below jumps and leaps for his legs, intending to pull him down and rip open his stomach, and feast. But he scrambles out, and the boy jumps on top of the door, slamming it shut, the fairy beside him. And as the lines disappear from the floor, he can still hear the child's agonized cry, and something else directly below bumps violently, almost bursting through the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

The guerrillas make their way down the mountain, along with Jeff, Ness, and Paula.

"We'll soon have reinforcements from Foggyland." Ness explains. "Fifty men or more. The we'll go head to head with Giygas."

"And then what?" Jeff asks, stopping them both. "You kill him, they'll send another just like him. And another..." Jeff continues to walk.

Jeff brings up the conversation again with Ness as he washes his bloody hands and surgical tools in the creek, and placing then in a tin bowl.

"You're screwed, no guns, no safe shelter... You need food, medicine." Jeff gets up and stares into Ness' violet eyes, who's holding his cap in his hands. "You should take care of Paula. If you really loved her, you'd cross the border with her. This is a lost cause."

"I'm staying here, Doctor." Ness replies, tiredly. "There's no choice." With that, he places his hat on top of his ash colored hair, and walks over to Paula.

The girl's picking berries off of a nearby tree. She turns around when she hears Ness approaching her.

"You have to leave." He says.

She holds out a copy of the storeroom key. "Here's the key, but you can't go down there now. It's exactly what he expects."

The teen boy looks at it like it's a gold bar, and slowly takes it, eyes full of happiness and excitement. He walks to Paula's side, wraps an arm around her shoulder, and kisses her on the cheek. "Leave it to me."

Paula holds onto his hand resting on her shoulder. "I'm a coward." She states simply.

"No, you're not."

She looks up at her friend. "Yes, I am. A coward – for living next to that son of a bitch, doing his laundry, making is bed, feeding him... What if the doctor's right and we can't win?" She asks with worried eyes.

Ness smiles and looks into her eyes. "At least we'll make things harder for that bastard."

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~oO0Oo~

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Old music on a photograph plays, and Giygas is again shaving with a switchblade in front of a mirror. He rinses the blade off in the water, his father's silver pocket watch ticking repeatedly nearby. Then the Captain gets hold of the small mirror, dangling from a string. He slowly places the knife on the mirror, on his neck's reflection.

He slices his reflections throat, eyes showing no care.

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten's mother is sweating profusely in her sleep. Dressed this time in a striped shirt of thick blue and thin yellow, he pressed the mandrake root to his chest, connecting with the bandanna finally tied around his neck.

He caresses his mother's soft and sweet face.

He places a hand on her pregnancy.

Dumping the large jug of milk into a bowl from the breakfast tray beside the bed, complete with a bread roll on a plate, he prepares the plant. As soon as it comes in contact with the milk and bobs up and down, it uncurls and looks like an infant, complete with soft whines and gasps. It really does look like a root that is a baby. It moves around in the milk, while the boy's mother tosses and turns in the sheets.

Ninten picks up the bowl and observes curiously.

Under the bed he goes, and kicks against the carpet to get further. He sets the bowl down. Then, putting his thumb and pointer finger together, he presses his thumb against his lips and finger into his mouth. He bites down slowly, breaking the skin and nerves. He closes his eyes and ignores the pain. His bandana hangs loosely over his neck, and a drop of blood falls upon it.

Hanging his two fingers over the bowl, he squeezes them together, dropping two drips of blood into the milk. It makes the two impact sites turn a very light shade of pink.

Someone's coming! A pair of shoes steps into the room. Ninten freezes, and barely breathes...

Jeff checks Carol's pulse.

"Captain Giygas!" He whispers loudly, and speaking of whom, the Captain walks into the room. "Her temperature is down. I don't know how, but it is."

Ninten lets out a soft sigh of relief. It _worked_. The faun had really helped him!

"But she has a fever?"

"Yes, but it's a good sign, her body is responding."

Then Ninten's smile comes crashing down.

"Listen to me." Giygas says. "If you have to choose, save the baby." He says this with no worry, just stating a command. "That boy will bear my name and my father's name. Save him."

 _You son of a bitch... you don't care about her at all! You're just using her! Fucker..._

 _BOOM!_

Ninten looks upwards towards the bed frame, the room being shaken, and Jeff and Giygas look up towards the ceiling, plaster raining down.

All the soldiers outside jog towards the sound, rifles in hand. Giygas pushes his way through the crowd. The sky is grey with smoke. A large bowl of fire expands in the treeline.

Ninten gets out from under the bed and looks at his mother's stomach. Trying to hold back the tears from what he just heard, he places his head on his mother's stomach.

"Brother," He says softly. "Little brother... if you can hear me, things out here aren't too good." Tears shine in the boy's eyes, his voice is shaky, like he's about to cry. "But soon you'll have to come out. You've made Mama very sick. I want to ask you for one favor for when you come out, just one: don't hurt her. You'll meet her, she's very pretty, even though sometimes she's sad for many days at a time. You'll see, when she smiles, you'll love her."

The boy adjusts his head, and lets one tear escape his cloudy eyes.

"Listen, if you do what I say, I'll make you a promise, I'll take you to my kingdom, and I'll make you a prince. I promise you, a prince."

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~oO0Oo~

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Something has blown a large crater into the rural railroad track. Tipped into it is the smoking ruin of a locomotive. Giygas inspects a couple of charred bodies by the wreckage, smoke just everywhere. Everything is black and grey. The air, the ground, everything.

Thunder rolls in the background.

"I sounded the whistle, but they wouldn't move." The engineer says, walking quickly to catch up with the Captain. "I tried to stop, but it was too late. The fireman and I jumped out just in time. But look at the mess they made."

"What did they steal from the freight cars?" Giygas questions.

"They didn't open a single one." The fireman states.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

This whole mess, they didn't open any of the cars." He says, wiping his hands of ash and grime. "They didn't take anything."

"Nothing? Are you sure?"

"God only knows what they wanted, other than to waste our time."

 _Waste our time..._

 _..._

 _SHIT!_

A large explosion erupts in the direction of the mill.

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~oO0Oo~

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A car explodes in the heavy rain. It's sheer chaos. Multiple bangs, explosions, men falling and jumping, smoke everywhere. Everdred fires a round out of his pistol, and then runs up to his superior. "They came out of nowhere, Captain-"

Giygas pushes him away, pissed. He slides off his sunglasses, and walks over to the open store room.

"They have grenades," Everdred says, still walking with Giygas, panicked. "They went up the hill."

The Captain takes special note of the lock hanging from the door.

"Captain, we've surrounded a small unit." A solider says as Giygas takes off the lock, ignoring them. He pushes the open hinge into it's position. Locked. He tugs on it.

 _It's not broken..._

"They took to cover up on the hill." The solider continues.

Giagas puts the lock down, takes off his large, black trench coat, and puts on his captain's hat.

Holding his gun, Giygas advances on foot through the dripping forest. He is accompanied by a squad of guards. Gunshots. A pair of guerrillas jumps out from a pile of boulders, blasting away. A guard falls down dead at Giygas' feet, three bullets in his chest. Giygas, Everdred and a solider take cover behind a craggy outcropping. Bullets explode onto the stone.

Excited, Giygas glances at his father's watch and smiles.

"Go on, Everdred, don't be afraid, this is the only _decent_ way to die."

He grips the watch in his gloved fist. He leaps out, firing. Two bullets whiz by his head and bury themselves in a tree. Giygas keeps shooting, wounding two of the guerrillas. Everdred follows, also firing. A man get's shot in his head behind Giygas, falling into the brush. The Captain reloads. They advance to the rock, continuing to fire.

Two rebels get shot on the rocks, and they fall.

Silence.

The soldiers walk up to the dead bodies, shooting them twice in their faces. They never moved...

Giygas walks up to two men, an alive rebel, torn to pieces by gunfire sitting next to his dead friend. The young boy is holding the side of his neck, blood leaking through his fingers, mixing with the wet rain.

Giygas bends down, and throws the boy's pistol down the hill.

"Let me see." The Captain says, grabbing the boy's hand.

The boy hesitates.

Giygas leans in closer. "Let me see." He says more persistently.

The boy lets Giygas drag his hand away from the wound. There is a gaping hole in the side of his neck, blood flowing out profusely.

"Can you talk?"

The boy opens his mouth, trying to get a word out, but all that come out... is nothing. His voice box is dead.

"Damn it." Giygas says. He stands up and raises his pistol to the boy's face. The boy sees this, and put his hand on top of the barrel, pushing it down. Giygas whips his hand off his gun by moving his pistol away swiftly. He raises it again, and the boy places his hand on the gun again. Giygas brushes it off once more. This happens once more, until the boy places his hand against the front of the bullet barrel. Giygas has had enough. He lets a bullet shoot thorugh the boys hand, and into his face. The boy drops, and the Captain lets two more bullets fly into the boy's face, blood squirting from the wounds.

Everdred, who was watching, turns around, appalled. He cocks his gun with a new round, while listening to Giygas say, "These are useless – they can't talk."

Everdred fires a round each into two men's heads, until he sees someone breathing.

"Captain!" He calls. "This ones still alive!"

Giygas hurries over.

"Shot in the leg," Everdred says.

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~oO0Oo~

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Paula runs down the stairs. "What happened?" She asks a maid quickly.

"They caught one." She replies, holding Paula's hands as they walk quickly.

"What?"

"They took one of them alive. And they're taking him to the storeroom."

 _Oh no!_

Paula ruses out into the pouring rain, not caring about being wet. Her hair is already soaked.

"Paula!" The maid calls.

"Ness... Ness..." She mutters to herself, her voice overflowing with worry.

She gets to the storeroom, to see two men leading a being that was covered into the storehouse. They push the person against a wooden support beam while Paula glares into the storeroom. Giygas approaches her from behind. "Captain, I need to get into the storeroom." She says.

"Not now, Paula." He walks into the room.

The girl catches the face of the blonde. The stuttering boy from the hideout. She only caught his name once... Picky... He's so young! Too young...

They stare into each others eyes - Paula's full of relief and pity - for a brief second, before the door is closed, separating their bonds.

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~oO0Oo~

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Paula cuts a peeled potato stressfully with the small knife from her hidden pinafore folds. Her mind is miles away.

"That's plenty, dear." A maid says to her, breaking her out of her trance.

She wipes off the knife on her clothes, and puts it back in it's hiding place in her dress.

"Should I take this up?" A maid asks her, holding a breakfast tray containing a pitcher of milk, a glass, and a bread roll.

Paula silently takes it from her and goes upstairs. She places the tray on the table by the bed, while Jeff mixes another dose of sleeping medication into a glass of water for Carol. They glance at each other, then Jeff walks over to Ninten's mother, handing her the glass. Carol and her son are lying on her bed together, looking though the ration cards.

"Here, half the dose."

"I don't think I need it." She replies. She is no longer sweaty or looks like she's in pain. "I feel better, much better."

"I don't understand, but I'm glad." He walks away. The only things left in the room is the glass vial of sleeping medication left on the bedpost, and Ninten and his healthy mother, healed by the mandrake.

"Mother..." He says happily and shows her a card.

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~oO0Oo~

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Wet hands are tied together with thick rope. Picky's hands. He's looking down, hopeless, wet, lightly drooling. Giygas walks over to the boy, and takes a puff on his cigarette, staring at him.

"Damn, this cigarette is good!" He exclaims, admiring it in his hands. The kid shakes, either from the cold, the fear, or both. "Real tobacco - hard to find."

He raises the joint to the stutterer's mouth, offering him a puff. The boy shuts his mouth, and backs his head up. "G- G- Go to Hell." The twelve-year-old blonde breaths heavily after this.

"Damn, Everdred. We catch one and he turns out to be a stutter. We'll be here all night."

"As long as he talks."

"Everdred is right." Giygas tells the tied up Picky, placing the cigarette in his mouth, and unbuttoning his shirt. "You'd do better to tell us everything. But to make sure it happens," the Captian raises a small hammer. "I brought along a few tools." He shows the tool off, spinning it in his hands. "Just things you pick up along the way."

The boy shakes shakes violently. This shaking is now from fear.

 _Sheer, utter, fear._

"At first I won't be able to trust you, but after I use this, you'll own up to a few things."

The man raises a pair of pliers, and squeezes them. Picky knew the were to be used to pull out his teeth, but for some odd reason he felt the would be used on his testicles. This made him shake thinking about the pain.

"When we get to these, we'll have developed a... how can I put this? A closer bond, much like brothers. You'll see."He then raises an small ice pick. Picky's eyes widen. "And when we get to this one, I'll believe _anything_ you tell me." Giygas takes a puff on his cigarette, and walks up to the boy, hammer in hand. He lightly taps the blonde once on the shoulder with the hammer. "I'll make you a deal." Giygas says. "If you can count to three without st-t-tuttering, you can go."

Giygas sees the boy looking at Everdred.

"Don't look at him, look at me. Above me, there's no one." Giygas sees the disbelief in Picky's shaken eyes.

"Everdred!" He calls.

"Yes, Captain?"

"If I say this asshole can leave, would anyone contradict me?"

"No one, Captain. He can leave."

"There you have it." He tells Picky, taking another puff on the cigarette. "Count to three."

The tension in the room spikes.

The boy shakes violently and breathes quickly. How could he _not_ stutter?

He rolls his lips.

"One..." He manages to squeak out quickly.

"Good."

"Two..." He says, looking down.

He looks into the Captain's eyes. "Good - one more and you're free."

There's hope in the boy's eyes.

 _So close. So close._

"T- T- T-t-t-t..."

He looks up at the Captain, hyperventilating. That hope came crashing down.

 _Shit, so close yet so far..._

"Shame."

With that, he swings the hammer on his face. There's a horrible pound and crack as the boy's head goes to the left, and the bones in his jaw crack.


	8. Chapter 8

That night, Ninten is awoken by a sudden voice.

"Your mother is much better, Your Highness."

It is the faun's voice.

The boy sits up in bed.

"Surely, you must be relieved."

He stands out of his bed. "Yes, thank you. But things haven't turned out so well."

The faun gasps and gurgles. "No?"

Ninten pulls out the wicker basket and hands it to the creature. "I had an accident."

"An accident?"

"Yes."

"Hmm." The faun opens up the basket, and when only one fairy flies out into the room, the look on his face says it all, and he growls angrily. The green fairy leaps up onto the faun's shoulder and chirps into his ear, telling everything, and pointing at the boy.

The faun's face turns into a snarl, and he growls. Pointing his finger at the boy, he yells "You broke the rules!"

"It was just two grapes." Ninten pleads desperately, quickly handing the faun the dagger to prove he still accomplished it. "I thought no one would notice." The faun snatches the dagger away, letting out a frustrated yell.

"We've made a mistake!" He yells, shaking his head.

"A mistake?"

"You failed. You can never return!"

"It was an accident." The boy cries.

"You cannot return." The faun yells back, full of rage. He points to the window. "The moon will be full in three days."

The boy looks down at the floor, silently crying.

"Your spirit shall forever remain among the humans. You shall age like them, you shall die like them, and all memory of you shall fade in time." He keeps backing up into the black corner. "And _we'll_ vanish along with it." He says almost filled with horror, pointing at his chest. "You'll never see us again."

With that, he ducks into the blackness, and he was gone.

And Ninten stands there, alone, and crying.

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.

.

~oO0Oo~

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.

.

Giygas washes his bloody hands in the morning rain. A boom of thunder crackles upwards. Jeff comes up to the Captain under an umbrella, that's being held by a guard.

"Good day, doctor," Giygas says. "Sorry to wake you so early, but I think we need your help." With that, they turn and head into the storeroom.

Jeff undoes his kit, and pulls out a sheet of gauze, and a large bottle of what looks like rubbing alcohol. He walks over to Picky, who is lying on the floor against the wall, holding his arm. The arm is broken in ninety-degree angles. First his arm, then his wrist, and then some of his fingers. His nose is flattened, he has multiple puncture wounds everywhere, leaking blood. He drools blood. One of his eyes is swollen shut.

Jeff bends down, drops his items, and slowly and gently grabs the boy's arm. The boy withers in extreme agonized pain and draws back, but lets Jeff take his arm and look at it.

"My God, what have you done to him?" He asks out loud.

"Not much. But things are getting better." Giygas replies, smiling. Making sure he isn't being watched by the doctor, he sneakily pulls out one of the small vials of antibiotics from Jeff's kit. He looks at it, then places it in his hand. He stares at Jeff, who's inspecting the boy's face.

"I like having you handy, Doctor. It has its advantages." With that, he places the vial into his left pocket, and walks off with Everdred, telling a guard to stay.

"I talked." The boy confesses. "Not much. B-b-but I talked."

Jeff looks to the ground. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He says, comforting the boy.

"Kill me, kill me now. Please." Picky states quickly, desperately, weakly.

Giygas walks into his office and pulls open his desk drawer. Pulling out the vial grabbed in the forest by the fire, he holds up the two side by side. He sees they are identical.

"Son of a bitch."

Jeff flicks a syringe, filled with a transparent, brown liquid. He flicks it and squirts out a little bit. He brings it to the young boy's arm, shaking violently. Jeff can't bring himself to do it. Picky looks down. He grabs Jeff's hand and pushes the needle slowly into his arm. Letting out a small gasp from the pinch, he then pushes on Jeff's hand, pushing down the plunger. The liquid shoots into his body, and looks at Jeff.

"It'll take away the pain."

Jeff slides the injection out of the boy's sweaty skin, and looks into his eyes, hand on his shoulder. "It's almost over."

Inside, Giygas cocks his pistol, loading a bullet. Walking out of the room, he hears a large crash upstairs. He stops.

"Watch Jeff. I'll be right back."

"Yes, Captain," Everdred says and hurries off.

Upstairs, Ninten quickly puts the food back on the breakfast tray he dropped. Dressed in his regular T-shirt and jeans, he quietly crawls under the bed, but not before checking that nobody heard him.

But his step-father had heard, and is silently heading up the stairs.

Ninten touches the root in the wooden bowl. It doesn't respond. It _is,_ however, bloated and immobile.

"You're not moving anymore. Are you sick?"

Ninten tenses up as something tightly grips his legs, and violently pulls him out from under the bed. He's pulled out so fast that his baseball hat flies straight off his head. He is pulled up and comes face to face with his angry step-father.

"What are you doing down there?" He growls.

Ninten says nothing as Giygas puts him on the floor, and heads towards the underside of the bed. He watches his stepfather closely as he stares under the furniture.

A black umbrella opens up, and Everdred walks towards the soldier guarding the storeroom door.

"Call him."

"Who?"

Everdred hits the guard. "Who else, you imbecile? Jeff."

When they see Jeff holding a syringe, and a dead Picky on the ground in his arms, they know everything.

Giygas pulls out the wooden bowl from the bed. Milk drips off and out of the bowl, running down the sides.

The Captain is confused as to what the hell is in the milk. More importantly, why is it in milk?

He sniffs it, it's putrid smell making him gag as it floods his nostrils.

He looks up at Ninten, his eyes _full_ of rage. Standing up, he towers over the boy.

"What the _hell_ is this?"

Ninten says nothing other than shaking his head and hyperventilating, filled with worry.

Giygas grabs the root, holds it up in the air and squishes it in his mighty fist beyond recognition.

"No!" The boy screams, reaching up desperately. "No, no, no, no!"

Giygas holds him back with his other palm easily, and is about to slap the boy clean across the face when something gets up from behind him.

"Leave him. Leave him alone, please!"

Giygas turns. Carol has been awakened, and motions for him to stop. He holds Ninten by his bandana while he holds the crushed root outwards towards his wife.

"Look at this!" He yells. "Look what he was hiding under your bed! What do you think of this?" He tosses it into her palms, and walks away to the other side of the room, wiping his hands. He observes the conversation.

Carol bends down. Looking at this wet, disgusting thing, trying to make sense of it. "Ninten, what is this thing doing under the bed?"

"It's a magic root the faun gave me." He says between tears, saying it like it was a matter of fact.

"This is because of that junk you let him read." Giygas interrupts loudly. "Look what you've done!"

Carol looks at him. "Please, leave us alone. I'll talk to him, darling."

"Fine. As you wish." Giygas storms out.

"He told me you would get better," Ninten says between sobs. "And you did."

"Ninten," Carol says, placing her hand on his shoulder. "You have to listen to your father. You have to stop all this."

"No." Ninten bawls and hugs his mother with all his might. "I want to leave this place! Please, take me away from here! Let's just go, please!"

"Things are not that simple." His mother replies, prying him off her body. She then gives him an important life lesson. "You're getting older, soon you'll see that life isn't like your fairy tales."

His mother moves over to the fireplace, it's light reflecting off her sweaty face.

"The world is a cruel place. And you'll learn that, even if it hurts."

With that, she chucks the magic root into the flames.

"No! NO!"

"Ninten!" She yells, turning around, and shaking the boy by the shoulders. "Magic does not exist. Not for me, you, or anyone else."

Then, the most awful, inhuman agonized cry fills the room. The root rolls on it's back like a baby set ablaze. It shrieks in pain, the humanoid root writhes and squeals.

Ninten's mother grips her stomach and lets out an exhale of pain. Holding her stomach, her knees buckle, and she gasps again.

 _Pain._

"Mom!" He yells, placing his hands on her. "Help!" He cries out. "Help!"

Three cries. The suffering cries of Carol, the cries of Ninten for help, and the dying shrieks of the mandrake.

"Help!"

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~oO0Oo~

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Giygas studies the deceased Picky. He stands up and turns to Jeff.

"Why did you do it?"

"It was the only thing I _could_ do," Jeff says, packing up his things.

Giygas walks forward. "No. You could've obeyed me."

"I could have, but I didn't."

"It would've been better for you. You know it. I don't understand. Why didn't you obey me?"

Jeff knows his next answer will seal his fate. But he knows he's pretty much dead already. Somebody needed to tell this guy off.

"To obey – just like that – for the sake of obeying, without questioning... That's something only people like you can do, Captain." Without another word, Jeff picks up his bag, and storms out. He walks away from Giygas into the rain, the Captain following. Giygas takes out his Walther. Jeff still walks. He shoots the boy square in the chest. Blood oozes into Jeff's shirt. He only replies with dropping his kit.

 _Just keep walking..._

He sweats, and takes off his glasses and wipes his brow, _still walking_.

 _Nothing you do will affect me_.

With that, Jeff drops to is knees, falls down into the mud, and dies.

Giygas walks up to the boy, spits on him, and holsters his weapon.

As if on cue, two maids come out into the rain, sharing an umbrella. "Captain!" The call.

He walks towards them. They tell him the drama.

With no doctor, Giygas turns around. "Everdred! Call the troop paramedic. Get up quickly."

"Yes, Captain."

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten and Giygas sit out in the hallway together on a wooden bench. Maids bring in basins of hot water into the bedroom, where Carol's agonized cries stream out.

The paramedic's hands are bloody, the sheets around Carol are streaked in wet crimson. He washes his hands in the hot water, while a maid brings out bloody sheets. From the amount of red, Ninten estimates things aren't going so well.

No, something is _seriously_ wrong.

Paula's face has drops of blood on it, and she closes the wooden door.

A baby's cry replaces Carol's.

All is silent.

The doctor emerges from the room, and Giygas hurries over.

"Your wife is dead." He mutters quietly.

The Captain hurries into the room.

But Ninten hears everything. He looks at the door and stands up.

A tear escapes his eye.

 _No._

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~oO0Oo~

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A beautiful afternoon. The sun is shining. The sky is clear.

A priest's eulogy is being read.

Gathered around a wooden coffin are the mayor, his wife, a priest, all the servants and guards from the mills, and many others. Everyone is in black.

Giygas rocks his crying son.

Ninten's dressed in an all black suit, complete with tie, dress coat, pants, and dress shoes. He weeps bitterly but silently.

Behind him, Paula places her hands on his shoulders.

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~oO0Oo~

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Upstairs, Ninten packs his mother's things. He packs her clothes and letters into a suitcase. He goes to the bedside table and picks up books, makeup, bottles, then stops. He picks up the sleeping drops and holds them up to his face. Deciding to keep them, he packs them. Grabbing the suitcases, he walks to the door, but not before looking back one last time. He stares at his mother's wheelchair that's by the sunny window. Ironically, a few small birds fly past.


	9. Chapter 9

Paula shushes and rocks the newborn baby in her arms. She places the child wrapped in two small blankets into the wooden cradle in Giygas' office.

Giygas holds a record in his hands, and without looking up, speaks. "You knew Jeff pretty well, didn't you, Paula."

 _Until you shot him..._

"We all knew him, sir." She says nervously. "Everyone around here."

Giygas walks to his desk and sits down. "The stutterer spoke of an informer. Here... at the mill. Can you imagine? Right under my nose." He places the record in its player and puts the needle on. He holds his hand out towards the seat on the other side of his desk.

"Paula, please." She slowly and nervously does so, Giygas pouring himself some liquor into a small glass. "What must you think of me?" He corks the bottle. "You must think that I'm a monster."

"It doesn't matter what someone like me thinks, sir." She replies, and looks up. He's holding the glass of booze out to her.

 _Dude, I'm fifteen!_

Deciding not to cause suspicion, she takes the glass anyways but holds it to her chest.

Giygas takes the whole glass he just poured himself right back. Swallows it like a shot. "I want you to go to the storehouse and bring me some more liquor, please." He says, corking the quarter full bottle of Orujo.

Paula places her full glass down. "Yes, sir. Goodnight, sir." She gets up to leave.

"Paula." He stops her. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Sir?" She turns around slowly.

He pulls open his desk drawer and holds out the storehouse key. "The key. I do have the only copy, don't I?"

She nods, not looking at him. "Yes, sir."

He gets up and walks towards her. "You know, there's an odd detail that's been bothering me." He looks right at her and stares into her eyes. "Maybe it's not important, but... that day they broke into the storehouse, with all those grenades and explosives, the lock itself wasn't forced. As I said, it's probably not important." He holds out the key, and she grabs it. He unpleasantly puts his other hand over hers. "Be very careful."

She grabs the key and turns around. "Goodnight, sir."

Giygas stares at her while she walks away, and starts the record.

Paula walks into the kitchen with that same canvas bag. Silently but quickly she removes the stone slab, and takes out some more mail, food, and other belongings.

Ninten is sleeping soundly in his bed. A single light beside him lights up the room. Paula quickly and silently rushes in, and kneels on the teen's bed, and shakes him awake. "Ninten! Ninten!"

He awakens, and a hand is placed on his head.

"Ninten, I'm leaving tonight." She says quietly.

"Where to?" He asks sleepily, yet full of worry. He stares into her eyes.

"I can't tell you. I can't tell you-" She places her hand on his cheek, and he grabs her wrist.

"Take me with you."

"No, no. I can't."

He sits up, repeatedly saying "Take me with you," desperately, hugging her neck and weeping into her chest.

"I can't, my friend. But I'll come back for you. I promise."

He starts to breathe heavily.

"Take me with you," he cries.

 _What else does he have to lose?_

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~oO0Oo~

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The rain bucket fills up, light thunder escapes. Paula and Ninten are outside in the night rain, outside the mill. Ninten is now dressed, in his striped shirt, jeans, cap, and bandanna. That's all he has. Not even any of his books. Paula opens up a black umbrella, and they walk into the rain, embracing each other, moving cautiously away from the mill.

They wade through that same creek again. Ninten and Paula are soaked from the rain. The boy shivers, and clutches Paula's arm like it was his lifeline. They stop.

"I heard something..." Paula mutters.

Ninten looks up at her, a few drops of rain dripping off his charcoal bangs .

"It's nothing, don't worry." She says, calming her teen friend down.

She turns around and is face to face with Giygas. About twenty other men are behind him.

 _He knows._

"Paula." He says, then looks down at his stepson.

"Ninten."

God, he hates that boy, especially when he hides behind the girl's arm.

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~oO0Oo~

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Giygas furiously drags the wet Ninten into the attic room. He holds him by the shoulders.

"How long have you known about her?" He questions loudly. He shakes him once, Ninten showing no signs of talking. He only hyperventilates from fear, his white face full of horror and drained of all color.

Giygas then accomplishes what he wanted to do for a long time.

He slaps the boy across the face.

Pulling the boy closer to his eyes, he screams at the boy holding his slapped cheek with both hands, tears forming in his horrified, sad eyes.

"How long have you been laughing at me? Little _bastard_!" He shakes him.

Tears then flow out the boy's eyes.

"Watch him!" He yells to the soldiers outside the room. He takes off his hat, wipes his hair, and says, "And if anyone tries to get in," He stares at Ninten in his eyes and puts extra emphasis on the next part. "Kill him first."

The man walks out.

The boy holds one cheek, the other hand is covering his mouth, as he closes his eyes, and weeps bitterly alone in the attic.

He sits and bawls into his hand.

His world has fallen apart.

He was going to die.

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~oO0Oo~

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"Dry meat." Giygas lists, tossing the brown stick from the bag. He sniffs a yellow package. "Tabacco." He drops this as well.

Paula is being tied up to the same wooden post where Picky met his demise. Her hands are bound by Everdred.

"If you had asked for it, I would've given it to you, Paula," Giygas says. He then takes out the letters wrapped in string. He speaks to Everdred. "I want the names of whoever wrote these letters. And I want them in front of me, tomorrow."

Everdred takes them in his hand. "Yes, Captain."

Giygas starts to unbutton his shirt. Everdred freezes in his position.

"You can go, Everdred."

He looks at Paula, then back to Giygas.

"You're sure, Captain?"

Giygas snickers. "For God's sake, she's just a woman"

Everdred laughs along with his superior, looks back at Paula, then heads towards the door, and leaves.

Paula looks up towards the ceiling and smiles.

"That's what you always thought." She laughs. "That's why I was able to get away with it. I was invisible to you. "Giygas laughs and grabs Paula's chin in his hand. He moves it around like an artist inspecting a statue. "Damn. You found my weakness: Pride."

He turns, and walks towards a table. "But it's _your_ weak points we're interested in."

He picks up the small hammer, and twists it in his hands, turning to the blonde fifteen-year-old. "It's very simple: you will talk..." He turns around and places the hammer back down. "And I have to know that everything you say is the truth." He picks up a small screwdriver with a bend it in.

 _Where's THAT going?_

Paula pulls out the knife hidden in her pinafore.

"We have a few things here strictly for that purpose." Giygas' back is turned.

She turns the knife around in her hands as Giygas picks up the icepick.

She begins to saw through the ropes.

 _Don't turn around now, don't turn around now!_

"Things we learn on the job." He picks up the pair of pliers. "At first-" He grunts in pain as a stabbing sound is heard, and something pierces his back. He drops the pliers, and the small knife in his back his dragged down through his skin, oozing blood through his clothes and splashing small drops on Paula's face. She rips the knife out, and Giygas tries to hold the wound in his shoulder blade. He turns around to Paula, blood on hands, when she stabs him again in his upper arm. She rips it out, and plunges the knife into his right arm, half crying in the process. When Giygas opens his mouth to scream after dropping to his knees, Paula holds him hostage. She plunges the knife into his mouth and presses the blade against his cheek, and he's stuck there. It starts to cut thinly into his flesh.

"I'm not some old man! Nor a wounded prisoner!" She yells at him in a protective voice.

Giygas grunts.

"Mother fucker... don't you _dare_ touch the boy. You won't be the first pig I've gutted!" She whips the knife clean through his cheek from the inside out, giving him a Glasgow Smile. Blood squirts from the wound and Paula takes a short breath as Giygas falls to his knees and holds his face.

Paula runs for the door and opens it, getting outside into the morning light, and shuts it.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire...

She wipes the knife from its blood and hides it back in the folds of her pinafore.

Blood streaked on her face, sweat on her neck, she tries to calmly walk away, heading in the direction of the woods.

The soldiers go about their business, as Paula walks with her head down, eyes peering occasionally to the left and right. Everdred listens to the radio, listening to the lottery numbers with the ticket he grabbed in the woods.

A solider notes Paula and calls to Everdred. "Hey-" He shushes him, trying to get the numbers. "Look: He let her go."

Everdred crumples the paper and throws it to the ground, knowing he lost. He walks to the man. "The fuck did you say?"

The soldier points out Paula, already halfway into the woods.

"Hey!" He calls.

Paula turns her head around, then speeds up.

Everdred takes out his pistol, and cocks it, Giygas running behind him, holding his cheek.

"Get her!" He yells. "Come on! Bring her to me!"

Everdred is shocked. Giygas wounded?

Giygas uncovers his face, and yells with all his might. "Bring her to me, damn it!" After seeing his cut cheek stretch, and seeing more tongue than he should've through the cut, a scared Everdred yells, "Mount up!"

Paula _dashes_.

She runs uphill, through the bushes and weeds, breathing heavily. She stops at a tree and holds it to catch her breath.

Looking behind her, she sees less than twenty meters away are the men on their horses, riding up.

 _FUCK!_

She continues to run, pushing off the tree. She dashes with all her might, her dress flowing behind her, her legs and arm in full throttle. Breaking through the bushes, she comes to a large clearing. But the men circle around her and surround her.

Paula stops, and looks around at the setting, hopeless.

She stares at Everdred, who pats his horse's neck, and jumps off. He walks slowly to Paula, holding his hands in front of him, shushing. The wind blows through Paula's hair as she pulls out her knife. She holds it up to him.

He takes his hat off, gentlemanly. "It'd be better if you came with me without struggling. The Captain says that if you behave-"

Paula holds the knife up to her neck with a flash.

Everdred stops but then continues slowly. "Don't be a fool, sweetheart."

Paula shutters violently, each step he takes towards her, she presses the knife a little bit closer to her neck.

"If anyone's gonna kill you... I'd rather it be me."

Paula was about to slice her neck open when she hears a gunshot. No, two. Correction: three.

A red hole explods in Everdred's shoulder, pushing his left side backwards. Then another hole appears in his right shoulder, sending him falling. One hit him in the centre of the chest. And he falls, torn apart by gunshots.

The horse jumps around, neighing, running, scared. One soldier is shot in the face, which sends him flying off his horse along with the brain matter that exits his head. One hits a man square in the chest, and he and the horse go down together. Shots pepper the air and pick off most of the men. But two get away, and a lot more horses run for the hills.

And then there was just Paula clutching her knife. She breaths heavily.

Men run out of the bushes.

A smiling Ness runs over to Paula and hugs her. Ness was right. About fifty men had joined him. They saved her.

They embrace, and Paula cries bitter tears. The boy in the baseball cap hugs her tightly, and she would not let go for anything. While the two embrace, them men blow off the heads of the soldiers with their guns in the woods.

Just as they had done to them...

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten leans against his bed, defeated. A chirping is heard in the night air, along with a flapping of wings. He smiles and lifts his head as the fairy flies in front of his face. Just like the faun did, he extends his pointer finger, and the creature perches itself on it.

A deep voice comes from in front of the boy.

"I've decided to give you one last chance." The faun says, smiling.

The boy sits up, crying grateful tears. He walks quickly holding out his arms. He cries as he hugs the faun's torso. The faun smiles, and places his hand on the Prince's head, and rests his head on his. This is all the faun ever wanted. The boy continued to weep scared but grateful tears. "Do you promise to do what I say?" He asks, pulling the child off of him, and leaning down to his level.

The young teen nods his head quickly.

The faun strokes the side of his face. "Will you do everything I tell you, without question?"

The boy nods his head again.

"This is your last chance."

The boy nods once more.

"Then listen," The faun taps Ninten's nose with his long, branchy finger, "to me. Fetch your brother and bring him to the labyrinth, as quickly as you can, Your Highness."

"My brother?" Ninten asks, confused.

The faun nods. "We need him."

This scares the boy a bit, but also confuses him. "But-"

The faun silences him, places a finger near his mouth. "No more questions."

Ninten remembers the promise he just made, but then realizes something else. "The doors locked."

The faun just shrugs, smiling. "In that case... create your own door."

He hands the teen a piece of chalk, which he takes.

The faun looks at the boy and smiles.


	10. Chapter 10

The two soldiers rush into the mill ground on their horses, critically injured. The other guards rush over to help.

Inside his office, Giygas washes his face of the blood, then stares at himself in the mirror, holding his hands on his face.

He removes them, and looks at the cut, opening his mouth to widen it. There's no blood in between, just flat, tan skin. The cut is sickening.

He gasps in pain as he widens his mouth a little too much, stretching the skin apart.

He then picks up the needle from the counter. It's bent for easier use and has a string tied on the end. He pierces the skin below his lip slowly, then pushes it in his mouth, then out the other side at the skin behind the top of his lip. He holds the cut together as he slowly pulls the black thread through the holes. The friction of the thread heats up the holes a bit and burns.

He continues.

Little does he know that Ninten is crouched silently by the table behind him, chalk in hand.

The baby lets out a single cry. The teen stares at his brother and places the chalk on the Captain's desk.

By now, his mouth is sewn shut, and he cuts the remaining string with his razor. He then brings up a thick pad of gauze with four small pieces of medical tape on it and attaches it over the wound. He doesn't know the boy hidden in the office was so tempted to yell "Boo!" right then and there, intending to make the man scream and rip out the stitches.

Ninten hides behind the front of the desk, while Giygas goes to the chair behind it. Ninten actually removes his hat so the right red won't stand out.

The baby's cry interrupts Giygas' train of thinking, but he gets back to his thoughts.

 _I really need a drink..._ He thinks after all this pain. He pours himself a glass of booze.

Ninten is silent in front of him.

Giygas raises the glass to his lips.

 _Oh no, you idiot!_

As soon as the liquid is in his mouth, his cheek stings in a line, and blood flows out along with alcohol and stains the gauze on the outside. He gasps in pain and holds the bandage, and then _pours himself another_. He raises it to his lips but then stops. He sees the piece of chalk on his desk. He places the glass beside it and picks it up, the chalk leaving a streak of white on the surface.

He looks at it in his hands and cracks it in two with his strong fingers. Giygas lets the pieces drop to the ground. Thinking someone's in there, he cocks his Luger, and raises it, making his way around the desk. He stares towards the front of the desk... but nobody is there.

He stares around in silence, except for the baby's cry.

 _I must be losing it_...

Walking towards his child, he hears someone come walking up behind him.

Turning around he sees a panicked solider.

"Captian, with your permission."

The Captain nods and the two walk towards each other.

"Come quickly."

"Now what?"

"Serrano is back. He's wounded."

"Wounded?"

Giygas looks around quickly, then the two walk out, unaware of the thirteen-year-old boy hidden among the sandbags. Ninten gets up, and cautiously makes his way to the baby's cradle, aware that his step-father could come back _any_ moment. He walks towards the glass of liquor, an pulls out a small vial out of his pocket.

The sleeping medication.

He remembers Jeff's words: _Three drops only._

 _Fuck that! Let this fucker die!_

One drop. Two drops. Three drops. Four five six drops.

 _Fuck it, how about ten?_

Using the eye dropper, Ninten empties a load into Giygas' drink, and then stirs it around with the dropper, smiling to himself.

 _Let's drug this fucker up!_

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~oO0Oo~

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Giygas walks into the dining room, the wounded Serrano sitting on a wooden chair.

"Where's Everdred?" He asks the guard.

The man replies with a shake of his spinning head.

The Captain pulls up a chair and sits down. "How many were there?"

"I don't know exactly, Captain." He replies weakly. "Fifty men, at least."

"The rest of the men didn't make it." A guard interrupts. "Our watch posts are not responding."

"How many men do we have left?" Giygas asks, eyes glazed with panic.

"Twenty, maybe less, sir."

 _Shit._

Giygas and Serrano stare at each other while the Captain does the math in his head.

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten picks up his baby brother from his cradle. He stares into his soft, little face.

"We're leaving." He says. "Together. Don't be afraid."

The baby lets out a coo.

"Nothing is going to happen to you."

Ninten holds his brother close to his chest as he begins to walk out.

"Put them on picket duty at the tree line." He hears Giygas say and sees the shadows coming from the hall.

Ninten's eyes widen. He looks around for a split second to hide, but runs back to his original hiding place among the sandbags.

"If the rest of the squad gets back, have it report immediately to me. Radio for reinforcements now."

"Yes, Captain."

The guard leaves, and Giygas raises the glass to his mouth. But he doesn't drink.

 _Come on! Drink it!_

He checks the time on his father's watch, then places it in his pocket. _Then_ he drinks.

Ninten silently makes his way to the door behind Giygas, clutching his baby brother.

Outside, the sound of shouting and gunfire. An explosion illuminates the room, turning it yellow. Ninten looks backwards, then back at the Captain. Giygas turns around, showing Ninten clutching the baby close to his chest. There is a moment of silence between the two.

"Leave him," Giygas says.

Ninten shakes his head, eyes full of fear.

Giygas takes a step forward. His vision blurries and he falls a bit to the left, dizzy, unstable.

Ninten takes this chance to run.

But Giygas stumbles after him, using the doorway for support every once in a while. He draws his gun; Ready to kill.

Ninten starts hyperventilating in panic as his stepfather comes after him. He makes his way cautiously down the wooden stairs in the kitchen, careful not to fall. An explosion causes a yellow flash to appear at the top of the stairs, revealing Giygas. The boom has shaken the house, causing him to fall a bit. Giygas is less than five meters away. Ninten takes this time to zoom out of the kitchen and into the night air. His stepfather follows but leans on the doorframe for support, and another explosion shakes the earth.

Ninten runs amongst the explosions and gunshots, into the night, and Giygas follows. He turns to his right to see several of his men being taken out by an explosion. Their deaths by the yellow sky. Men get shot as Giygas runs after his son.

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~oO0Oo~

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Paula busts down the wooden door to the attic. She, Ness, and a bunch of other guerrillas rush into the room filled with yellow light and smoke.

Ninten isn't there.

She walks up to Ninten's bed and grabs the boy's bathrobe lying on the bed. It's small...

She hugs it to her chest.

She looks around the room again and eyes a rectangle drawn in chalk on the concrete wall.

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~oO0Oo~

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Ninten dashes into the labyrinth, Giygas not far behind. He stops and looks where the boy brought him to, and continues to run after him.

The moon is full, lighting up the labyrinth so there's everything to be seen. Ninten breathes heavily, running on pure adrenaline through the labyrinth. His bandana is flying behind him. Whenever he'd round a corner, Giygas would round the same corner not a second later.

 _Going to die. I am definitely going to die._

 _Do I turn here? No, here._

He takes so many twists and turns he's sure he is going to lose the Captain. But he can hear his steps not fifteen feet away.

But Giygas is slow, leaning on walls for support, clutching his gun tightly. He stops for a second to compose himself, to literally steady his mind, then continues running.

Things only get worse when Ninten -almost literally – ran into a dead end.

 _Isn't the well supposed to be here?_

He looks around.

 _Shit, this is so it._

Ninten looks around, scared. It was then that stones moved apart, and the vines and roots inside them.

 _There's_ the well.

He runs through the new opening, clutching the baby close. The roots and vines twist together, tighten and coil, pulling the stones back to the way they were.

It is then that Giygas has come to the exact same dead end. He looks around for his stepson but realizes that he must've taken a wrong turn somewhere. He runs back.

"Quickly, your majesty," The faun yells, "give him to me." The faun is beckoning the boy over with his hand. Ninten walks around the giant stone hole in the middle and comes face to face with the faun. The moonlight lit the whole area perfectly. The faun clomps closer to Ninten.

"The full moon is high in the sky, we can open the portal."

Ninten eyes the object in the faun's palm. The dagger.

"Why is that in your hand?"

The faun looks away from him and slides his hand along the blade. "The portal will only open if we offer the blood of an innocent."

The faun sees the horror in the boy's eyes and holds his hands out defensively. "Just a drop of blood." The faun jabs himself in the hand. "A pinprick, that's all. It's the final task."

The faun leans in. "Hurry." He says loudly, beckoning him to come closer, to give him his brother.

Ninten breathes quickly in panic, and shakes his head, clutching the baby tighter.

The faun leans in, growling profusely. "You promised to obey me!" He screams, pointing a finger upwards towards him. "Give me the boy!"

"No!" Ninten yells, although it sounds more like a wail. "My brother stays with me."

"You would give up your sacred rights for this _brat_ you barely know?"

Sadly, Ninten looks down, realizing he's losing his place as Prince. But he wouldn't become a prince if that means hurting his baby brother.

"Yes, I would." He cries.

"You would give up your throne for him? He who has caused you such humiliation?"

Little does Ninten know that Giygas had found another way around. Giygas wipes his eyes, leaning on the stone wall. He stares at Ninten, just standing there, looking towards a wall.

"Yes, I would." He says to the air.

 _There's nothing there... What is this kid talking to?_

Ninten looks at his brother, saddened as the faun growls in disappointment. The faun smiles. "As you wish, Your Highness." He backs up into the shadows, never to be seen again. Gone forever this time. Ninten had failed.

Giygas holsters his pistol, walking to Ninten. The boy is whipped around by a hard hand on his shoulder. The baby coos at this sudden movement. Ninten looks up at the Captain, horrified. He starts hyperventilating again – lightly.

Giygas pulls his son out of Ninten's arms and cradles him in his to make sure the infant is not hurt.

Ninten's heavily breathing speeds up. He turns around, to see the faun is not there. He spins his head again and looks at Giygas, who's taking the infant away.

"No!" Ninten yells.

Giygas has had enough. He raises his pistol, aims it at Ninten's stomach, and fires.

A loud _BANG_ and a flash of light streaks across Ninten's face.

 _You idiot. Are you THAT drugged that you put BLANKS in your gun?_

Then the pain ripples throughout his stomach. Something hot starts streaming out of his stomach. Pain comes out as well. The image of his organs being torn is no laughing matter. Ninten inhales slightly from the shock, and turns towards the light of the moon, standing on the edge of the stone well.

Giygas is already leaving.

Ninten puts his hand on his stomach. The red, blue, and white striped shirt is wet. And warm. He brings his wet, left hand up to the light of the moon.

It's red. As red as the bandana around his neck. It shines in the moonlight.

 _I've been shot._

He lets his hand fall, and looks forward. Ninten's knees buckle, and he falls onto the cement on his back, smacking his head on the concrete a little. His hand hangs beside his dying, white face. He stares at the blood, holds his shot abdomen, and breathes heavily. Taking in all the air he can get.

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~oO0Oo~

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Giygas walks outside the entrance of the labyrinth. In front of the yellow sky from explosions, he sees Ness and all his men. Beside Ness, is Paula. Giygas stops, realizing his fate. He resumes his walk, holding his son. When he steps out the labyrinth, the Captain hands out his son once in front of Ness and Paula.

"My son."

Paula walks up slowly, and takes the crying infant in her arms, shushing him. Paula then walks back with the child.

Not having much time left, Giygas pulls out his father's ticking watch. He moves it to his left hand and clutches it tightly.

"Tell my son..." He starts. "Tell him what time his father died. Tell him that I-"

"No," Paula says sternly. "He won't even know your name."

Giygas looks at Ness for support, but already finds him raising his pistol, and cocking back the hammer.

Ness pulls the trigger, sending a bullet into Giygas' cheek, and out his skull, blood and brain matter splattering the ground.

The child wails.

Giygas pulls a palm to the cheek's bullet hole, blood leaks into his left eye. He falls over.

Dead.

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~oO0Oo~

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All the people come to the center of the labyrinth, Paula leading with the baby in her arms, followed by Ness, and Ness' men. She looks at Ninten on the ground.

 _No._

Not looking behind her, she passes the baby to Ness, who takes him in his arms.

Paula begins walking over to Ninten, and once there, drops to her knees beside his dying body, which is letting out slow, short breaths.

Ninten looks horrible. His face is paper white, a thick ribbon of blood is running out of his nostrils. There's a nasty blood splatter on his T-shirt, and his hand is covering the wound. His eyes are dead, looking forward, with just a trace of life left in them. If it weren't for the sound of his breathing, Paula would've thought he was dead.

Paula places both of her hands on his arm and lets out a single sob. Ninten replies with a gurgled sniff from the blood in his nose. She lets out another soft sob.

He was just trying to protect his brother...

The blood on his hand continually drips into the well.

A drop drips like rain into a small puddle by the etching's slab. Another one. Then more drops fall onto the etching itself. It's bathed in moonlight, as Ninten is bathed in blood.

Among the silence and Ninten's breathing, Paula beings to hum a lullaby. The same lullaby she hummed that one night to Ninten. That one put him to rest. This one will put him to rest... _forever_.

She takes a small sniff in a beat in the song and continues.

The ground around Ninten glows yellow. The boy blinks. Something's not right.

"Arise, my son." A strong, burly, male voice calls out. Ninten sits up slowly, hand still plastered on the wound. The humming continues. "Come."

He stands up and looks around. The entire room is _huge._ It could fit a small town. It's all layered in gold. In the center of the room are three, high, golden thrones, each about three stories tall.

Ninten looks down at his palms and twists them around. No blood. He glances down at his clothes. A smooth yellow shirt, a shiny red coat over it. A red handkerchief tied around his neck made of the finest red velvet. He rolls back on his heels, looking at his shoes. They're brown and go up past his ankle. They're tied together neatly with bright, red laces. He puts his feet back on the gold floor and looks up at the thrones. He slowly and awkwardly takes seven steps forward and looks at the person sitting in the middle throne.

"Father." The boy says out loud. He is dressed in yellow and gold as well and looks very old with long white hair and a long white beard.

"You have spilled your own blood _rather_ than the blood of an innocent. _That_ was the final task, and the most important."

 _It was a trick_.

Out from behind his father's throne comes the faun, smiling brightly, the fairies flying all around him. He smiles at them brightly.

"And you chose well," The faun says bowing, "Your Highness."

"Come here with me," His mother says, the one to the left of his father. Her hair is gold and curled neatly down to her ears. Dressed in gold and red, she clutches an infant wrapped in gold felts close to her chest. "And sit by your father's side. He's been waiting for you so long."

Ninten smiles a bright smile and plays with the tip of his bandana. While he does this, the entire large room cheers and claps in applause.

He smiles, and his eyes twinkle.

A female's lullaby comes into the sound waves.

Ninten lies on the concrete, Paula still beside him.

He lips curl into a smile, and he breathes outwards happily.

The muscles in his face relax, dropping the smile.

The breathing drops.

Ninten is dead.

Paula continues humming for a second and then stops, realizing the death of her friend. Her teary breaths breathe inwards sharply, and she lets out three sobs, and then drops her face onto the boy's chest, her tears streaming onto his shirt and bandana.

He's a still doll.

Paula sobs bitter sobs over the death, and places a hand on his hand holding the wound, and rubs it.

She holds Ninten and sobs. And she won't let go for anything.

 _ **And it is said that the Prince returned to his father's kingdom. That he reigned there with justice and a kind heart for many centuries. That he was loved by his people. And that he left behind small traces of his time on Earth, visible only to those who know where to look.**_


End file.
